12 Days of Christmas
by BlueQueenBee
Summary: It's been 3 years since Artemis recovered from the Atlantic Complex, 4 since they came back from Hybras. Everyone gets together to make a Christmas that Holly will never forget. Story was on hiatus for a while. Starting to update again.
1. The Plan

"Please?"

Major Holly Short of the LEP and Section 8 nearly dropped her communicator. Clearly, she had misheard something.

"Excuse me," she replied, blinking ferociously. There was no way the great genius Artemis Fowl II was begging, right?

She heard him sigh. "Please, Holly. I want you to come to the manor for Christmas."

Alright, so she wasn't hearing things. Good to know. However, he wasn't getting away so easily.

"Why?" Holly asked, thinking fast. Truthfully, it would be wonderful to spend the holiday above ground. As much as she hated the cold, the snowy air in Ireland would be crisp and clean and wonderful for flying. She also missed Artemis like crazy. She hadn't liked adjusting to seeing him every few months after being with him every morning while he was in Haven for treatment for Atlantis Complex. Not that she would be admitting this to anyone...

Artemis sighed again. He knew she would be difficult.

"Mother is having a grand New Years' Ball, for one. I am required to attend, seeing as it's being held here. She has made it very clear that I am not allowed to hide in my study for any part of the event. If I must be surrounded by prancing, drunk idiots, I would like to have someone there that I can at least have an intelligent conversation with."

Holly couldn't deny the smile that crossed her face at the smoothness of his speech. The obsession with 5's was the last part of the Complex to go. She still felt relieved when his speech wasn't slanted and harsh. However, she also noticed that he had made her sound like some sort of easy out, which she didn't like.

"Arty, I'm not going to come all the way to Ireland just to save you from some drunk debutants."

Artemis resisted rolling his eyes like a common teenager. Barely. "Holly, the Ball is only one night. I want you to stay for the entire holiday." She would try to make him sound like he was just using her for a distraction. Albeit, a distraction he didn't mind having...

"And what will I be doing the rest of the time? Hiding from your brothers?" They had discovered that her brothers quite liked playing tricks on the little fairy. Ever since the entire family had been allowed to know of the existence of The People (against the Council's wishes, of course), Myles and Beckett had spent many hours devising plans to make Holly jump in surprise which had the interesting effect of causing her to shimmer out of the visible light spectrum. After months of seeing Holly flicker in and out of sight from shock, they had yet to become bored with their game, much to Holly's annoyance.

Artemis chuckled slightly. He had been doing that a lot more since being admitted into Haven's best psych ward. Smiling and laughing came more naturally to him after spending 7 months in the presence of Holly, Mulch and Foaly.

"I'm sure they will get bored with their little game, eventually."

Holly scowled, thinking of the last time she had been victim to one of their pranks. It had involved a rigged door and a bucket of purple-dyed water. Apparently the boys had figured out that the water would still be dripping from her head even if she wasn't visible.

"Somehow I doubt that," she said, trying not to glare a hole in the table beside the communicator.

"I will talk to them. They like you too much to chance upsetting you." Artemis hoped his little brothers would not be the fall to his winter plans. He would be highly annoyed if Holly would get out of coming to see him just because his brothers liked to be childish.

Holly considered for a moment. He was right. Myles and Beckett loved to see her, even if they weren't trying to scare her out of her skin. She was the best hide-and-seek partner they had ever encountered, and she told the best stories. Being LEP and having battled trolls, manic pixies, goblins and demons had its perks. She could hide in plain sight, and the boys never tired of hearing of her adventures with their older brother.

She let out the breath she had been holding. "Alright, so I won't be hiding from them the entire time. What WILL I be doing?"

Artemis let a small smile breach his lips. "Anything you want to do. Your wish will be my command. Consider it my version of the 12 Days of Christmas."

"The what?" came her reply.  
>. He scowled. Of course she did not get the reference. It was a human song, after all.<p>

"Historically, some cultures used to give a present to their loved ones every day for the 12 days following Christmas, to celebrate the birth of Christ and the journey of the Maji to the new king. Of course, that is all religious babble, but the idea was made into a well known Christmas song, "The 12 Days of Christmas," which is where most people know the idea from."

Silence.

'Alright,' thought Artemis, 'let us try this again.'

"Have you ever heard of the song about a partridge in a pear tree?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think so..." came the hesitant response.

"It's like that. The idea is to give one present a day for 12 days. In this case, it can be whatever you want. We can go to France or Italy, if you like. Juliet would love to take you shopping, or to a spa."

Holly considered this. 12 days of whatever she wanted from a boy who had (or could get) everything. Not to mention, it was high time for a vacation.

"Hmm. I still think you're up to something," she said.

Now Artemis allowed himself a full grin. He was up to something, as usual. Not that he would be telling her that.

"Will you come? I've already spoken with Foaly and he talked to the Commander. They are willing to grant you a visa and allow you access to the runes that No1 made."

While Artemis was recovering in Haven, No1 had decided to come up with a way to make it easier for Butler and Juliet to stay in Haven without causing a riot. After some research and a little assistance from Foaly and Quan, he managed to create removable runes that would make the wearer look like an elf. Basically, the physical appearance would shift into what was shaped like a fairy, but all of the individualistic features (hair, skin color, eyes) would all stay the same. Butler had been tall, buff, and bald, but the pointy ears and substantial size decrease had worked marvelously. No1 had then decided to make runes that would do the same thing to fairies, but to appear human. They would still have all their magic and general appearance, but they would grow taller and lose outstandingly "non-human" qualities (like pointy ears or wings). Holly had tested the runes and had to admit, she didn't mind the results. She was still shorter than Artemis when she was shaped like a human, but it was nice not to have to strain her neck to see him.

"You little sneak. You have this all planned out, don't you?" Holly was mildy impressed, but trying to sound offended. It didn't work.

"And what if I do? You deserve a vacation, Major." 'D'arvit' Holly thought. He's dead right. As always.

"I'll think about it. Right now, I have to run. I'm on my lunch break and should probably get back."

He knew that was the best he was going to get right now, but Artemis was confident his plan would work. They always did.

"Alright, Holly. We will continue this conversation later."

Holly could hear that annoying confidence in his voice. She wanted to go, but she didn't have to walk right into his hands...

"Okay, Arty. Try to be good. Bye!" She smiled, knowing that "being good" was probably no where on his agenda.

"Goodbye, Holly," Artemis said, severing the connection on the communicator.

Little did Holly know, she was quite right about him being up to no good...


	2. Christmas Eve

Miles of tunnel flashed by as Holly looked out the window of the public shuttle to E1: Tara. She wasn't on official LEP business, so she couldn't just take a shuttle for her own use, but her badge and acorns did make her trip through the terminal much easier. The buzz baton and Neutrino didn't hurt, either. She had flatly refused to be aboveground unarmed for two full weeks. She expected to be met with resistance when she declared that she would be taking a full LEP suit and weapons with her to Ireland, but Commander Kelp simply told her not to cause any incidents. He wasn't thrilled about it, but he knew that two weeks on the surface would do a world of good for Holly's recently fraying temper and really did not want to give her an excuse to back out.

Everyone, even Mulch, had noticed how much she beamed and bounced for the week preceding the trip. She was excited and couldn't help it. What no one knew, she hoped, was that she was also exceedingly nervous. Artemis had been quite vague plans for the stay. She knew he wouldn't pull anything crazy (okay, she hoped…). Still, it was unnerving to have no idea what she was doing for the next fourteen days. Not to mention that she would be with Artemis for actual down time. They hadn't spent more than a few hours in each other's company since he had gone back to Ireland. Would he act strangely? Would he just ignore her and let her go about on her own adventures? And then there was that talk they still hadn't had…

Holly shook her head to clear out the complicated thoughts and focused on the tunnels flying by the craft. It was easy for her to get lost in the thrill of zipping around the shutes, even if she wasn't the one piloting the shuttle. Thankfully, it was the day before Christmas so the shuttle was mostly empty, allowing her to have picked a window seat and be comfortable.

In what seemed like mere minutes, the docking bay came into view. Holly swallowed the feeling of nerves that slinked up her throat, but she knew it wouldn't leave entirely. She wasn't sure why she was so freaked out about seeing them all again. She missed Juliet and Butler and couldn't wait to see them. She missed Artemis as well, but for different, slightly uncomfortable reasons…

She shook her head again. She needed to get ahold of these thoughts! It would not do for a Major in the LEP to go walking into the few tourists present because she had her head in the clouds.

Once she had gathered her small amount of luggage (Juliet had warned her that she would be taken on a shopping trip the second day she was there to find clothes that would fit her human shape), Holly took a deep breath and headed towards the exit of the Tara terminal.

Outside, Holly couldn't help but to take a deep breath of the wonderful Irish air. Tara was positioned far from human production or activity, so the atmosphere was cleaner than most. The crisp morning air nipped her pointed ears and they twitched, not used to the chill on the breeze. Holly just grinned. She felt her tension fading quickly as she walked towards the road.

Butler stood by the Bentley as Artemis relaxed on a blanket, reading a book. 'Well,' Holly thought, amused, 'as close to relaxing as Artemis can get when near nature.' A smile suddenly took over her face; butterflies unexpectedly did a twirl around her stomach.

Both Butler and Artemis glanced up at the same time. Her arrival was clearly no surprise.

She halted 10 feet from the edge of Artemis's blanket. Setting down her luggage, she raised an eyebrow to both men. 'Men,' she thought, 'Artemis is certainly growing into a man.' In the four years since they had returned from Hybras, Artemis had gone from looking like a living vampire to appearing much more approachable. He no longer constantly looked as though he were trying to steal one's soul. She counted this as a definite improvement. She stared at his face for a moment; her eyes drank in his features. She was so glad to be seeing them again. She refused to question why she was suddenly so happy, deciding to chalk it up to simply missing her friends.

Her eyes shifted to Butler. His lips slowly curved into a small smile. He had missed the fairy as much as she had missed the human mountain. Butler reached towards her bags as Artemis stood up, brushing imaginary dust off his slacks.

"Holly," he started, suddenly very aware of his pulse and how it was shooting through his veins at the sight of her, "it's good to see you."

Ignoring the redness that was quickly covering his face, he reached down and pulled the little elf into a hug. Four years ago this would have been strange to the pair, but time had brought down much of Artemis's discomfort with showing affection. By now, not hugging Holly would have been an oddity to him.

They were silent as they held on to each other tightly, each breathing in the others' scent and locking it in their memory along with how good it felt to be together again. They stayed entertwined for several moments, neither wanting to let go just yet. The sound of the trunk closing called them to their senses.

"I missed you," they both admitted as soon as Holly was back on her feet. Butler, back from loading up the luggage, witnessed this and had to fight a smile as his charge and the newly arrived fairy suddenly broke eye contact and began examining the nearby holographic cow.

Finding pity for the two, Butler finally cut in, "Hey, what about me?" in a joking fashion that would surprise most people who didn't know him. Butler, too, had lightened up over the months in Haven.

Holly ran at him, jumping the distance to his shoulders, attempting to crush him in a hug. The bear of a man just chuckled and returned the hug, careful NOT to crush the person trying to strangle him. "I missed you too!" shouted Holly, giving him one last squeeze around the neck before dropping to the ground.

"So, what's the plan for tonight?" Holly asked, suddenly remembering her concern about such things from earlier in the day.

"Since it already so late," Artemis answered as he entered the back seat of the Bentley, book and blanket somehow already gathered up, "I was going to suggest simply getting back to the manor and getting you settled in for the night. We can start commencing with plans and such tomorrow. This way, you have ample time to get adjusted to your guest suite and get plenty of rest. Tomorrow is Christmas and the twins will undoubtedly be awake before the sun to see what Santa Claus brought them." He seemed amused at the thought, although Holly had to put effort into not looking appalled.

"Before sunrise, seriously?" she wouldn't be up that early out of choice for any amount of money or presents.

"They are still young. They know Santa Claus is just a children's myth, but they still do enjoy ripping the paper off of new toys. They are Fowls, after all."

"True," Holly replied, rolling her eyes. Some things just shouldn't surprise her anymore.

"Are both of you ready?" came Butler's call from the front seat. The Bentley gently purring, Butler received a positive response and drove off into the night.


	3. A Partridge in a Pear Tree

A/N: I own nothing.

The editor ate my punctuation. Ch 2 should be fixed. Please let me know if this problem continues.

Also, the page breaks may or may not appear. I tried to put plenty of lines between the places where they should be, just in case.

**Partridge in a Pear Tree**

The first thing Holly noticed when she woke up was how much she didn't want to get out of bed. The warm softness of the high thread-count pillows, sheets and duvet were calling her back to dreamland. As she blinked the sleepiness out of her eyes, she vaguely remembered dreaming about flying over the Irish countryside. She smiled, remembering the almost real feeling of the wind on her cheeks.

The next thing she noticed was that she was not in the guest room. Her police training kicked in instantly as she bolted up, quickly assessing the situation. She was in Artemis's room. She quickly thought about how she could have gotten there. Last night they had sat up talking, she must have fallen asleep. She wasn't sure how she ended up in his bed, and would not be thrilled if she discovered they had slept in the same bed without her knowing.

As she was attempting to rack her brain for a memory of how she managed to get into the king-sized bed, Artemis exited the bathroom, obviously fresh out of the shower.

Holly couldn't help but stare. His raven hair was still damp, hanging lightly in his face as he walked towards her. Well, maybe walk wasn't the right word. She took in a sharp breath as she realized he was putting more movement into his hips and shoulders than she'd ever seen. He was almost sauntering. The cocky smile that crossed his face as their eyes met did nothing to clear her head. 'It's too early for this,' she decided, promptly burying herself back in the covers.

"Good morning, sunshine, and Merry Christmas," he said, sitting on the bed. "Before you start accusing me of being improper, I slept in the guest quarters last night. I only came in to take a shower. I thought I would allow you to sleep in. You passed out on the couch while we were talking last night."

'This makes sense,' she thought, deciding to uncover her head. She smiled at him. "Thank you. And Merry Christmas to you too," Holly said, trying not to notice that his shirt wasn't completely buttoned up yet. She was failing miserably.

He followed her eyes and blushed, hurriedly doing up the remaining buttons on his dress shirt.

Once finished properly dressing himself, he cleared his throat and turned his attention back to the sleepy elf.

"Would you like to go down to breakfast now? Or do you need to shower first? Or, if you would rather, I can have Butler bring you breakfast in bed. This is your vacation, after all."

"Mmmm," came the response. She had curled up into the blankets again. They had stayed up late catching up and she really did not want to leave this bed, especially when he was so close that she could smell the shampoo he had used. She shook her head again, burying her face into the pillow. 'Bad fairy!' she thought, trying to hide a smile. She had given up denying her attraction to the Mud Boy...ahem, Mud Man, years ago. This didn't mean she'd outright admit it to him, of course, but she wasn't going get out of this bed until she had to. His being so close was an added bonus.

Artemis grinned, guessing her thoughts. He tipped his head to one side, giving in to a moment of wanting to just look at her. There was no anger, excitement or fear on her face; the only clear emotion was contentment. He was happy that she was so comfortable here, in his bed. His hand flew to the bridge of his nose in attempt to hide the redness that was creeping into his face. He knew he should not be thinking things like that, but he could not help it. She looked stunning with the early morning light gently caressing her dark, pointy features. He knew the moment would not last, but it was nice to just watch her for a time with no immediate emergencies to be seen to.

As if on cue, Butler entered, carrying a tray of fruit and breakfast pastries with coffee and fruit juice.

Holly sat up as Butler approached the bed, not saying a word about the small fairy sleeping in his charge's bed. Holly suspected that Artemis had already told him about the previous night's happenings.

"Merry Christmas! Breakfast in bed for all," the tall Eurasian said, smiling at them. "Your parents refused to deal with the twins this early. The two little monsters woke them up about half an hour ago and are now terrorizing Juliet downstairs. Mrs. Fowl declared that if they were going to have so much energy, no one else really needed to put forth any, so they decided to have breakfast in their quarters. I thought you two might have the same thoughts after staying up so late." His expression only changed when he spoke about the twins, but Holly noted a slight twinkle in his eye when he joked about their evening.

"That would be wonderful, thank you," Holly said, as Artemis moved towards the headboard to make room for the large tray.

Butler set down the food, smiling warmly at both of them. "Just come downstairs when you are finished. I don't think Myles and Beckett will be able to resist the presents much longer."

Holly shook her head with a smile. No doubt the boys had been driving everyone insane all morning. She was honestly surprised they didn't just rip into the presents anyway, family present or not.

As Butler left, Artemis handed Holly a plate with fruit and poured her a glass of juice. He repeated the gesture for himself, but took coffee instead of the juice. Holly had to suppress another smile as she thought, 'He is always so chivalrous. He opened the doors for me last night, and then he slept in the guest room so I wouldn't be disturbed.' She didn't know why he was so gentle with her, why he seemed to want to take care of her, but somehow she didn't mind. She knew she should; she had always been independent and like that about herself. Somehow, though, Artemis' kindness didn't bother her in the least.

They ate in comfortable silence, sitting with their backs to the headboard of Artemis' large bed. When she was finished, Holly placed her plate and cup back on the tray with a content sigh. She highly considered curling back into the covers and not coming out for a few days. She was more relaxed than she had been in months.

Artemis watched her, aware of their closeness and the lack of stiffness in the silence. He wanted to say something, but did not want to break the mood Holly was so obviously enjoying.

After a few minutes of simply sitting on the bed together, Artemis finally started to get up. Holly's arm twitched to stop him, but she knew they needed to go downstairs.

"I do not wish to leave, either," he said, once again reading her mind with frightening accuracy, "but I would imagine that my parents are eager to stop the twins from trying to break everything in the manor." His face was soft as he spoke, his eyes gentle. The expression looked so strange on his features, but not unwelcome.

"Okay," she sighed, finally leaving the comfort of the blankets. She still wore the clothes she had changed into when they arrived at the manor late the night before. "I'll go change and meet you downstairs."

He watched her leave the room, trying to refrain himself from curling in bed next to the spot she just vacated. He had gone to the guest room out of respect, but he had greatly wished he could have been next to her as she dreamed.

'Well,' he thought, 'this is only the First Day of Christmas. There are eleven more, and today is not over with yet.'

Needless to say, chaos ensued for the next several hours as the family, Butlers included, exchanged gifts. Most of this chaos, it seemed, came from a new science kit Myles had received from Artemis Junior and the electric guitar Angeline and Artemis Senior had given Beckett. Small explosions of smoke and harsh sounds of what Holly suspected was supposed to be music filled the halls of the manor until well past noon.

After a light lunch, Angeline and Juliet went off to work on plans for the New Years' Ball. The first thing they wanted to do, it seemed, was get Holly ready for the event. According to the Fowl Matriarch, there was to be at least 200 people attending. Holly nearly ran for it when she said this, but Artemis walked over and placed an encouraging hand on her shoulder.

Juliet excitedly announced that they would go to a spa the next day, "To relax before all the hard work actually starts," she confided to Holly. The idea of having anything more to do with the mountains of order forms, flower arrangement ideas and food tastings for the party horrified Holly. She wanted no part in all of this mess. Evidently, however, Artemis had warned his enthusiastic mother that the elf might not be as excited about this event as she was expecting. Again, Artemis saved the day. After two (very long, excruciating, to Holly) hours of going through pictures of dresses, shoes and hair styles as well as flower choices, Holly was allowed to leave the more feminine members of the household to their tasks.

As she finally made it into the guest suites, Holly noticed something on her bed. She had received a small gift from Artemis' parents and a miniature sized set of throwing knives from Juliet and Butler, but Artemis hadn't given her anything earlier in the morning. She was hurt for a moment, but when she looked at him with a silent question, he simply smiled. She relaxed; he had something up his sleeve.

She now turned her attention back to the small box. It was the size of her head, with bright blue wrapping and a large golden bow. Next to the box was a note in Artemis' precise handwriting.

_"I could not think of any single gift that would portray how much you mean to me and my family, so I decided to go a different route._  
><em>The tale of the 12 Days of Christmas began with religious meaning, but is now a simple Holiday Carol sung all around the world.<em>  
><em>Inside this box, you will find your gift for the First Day of Christmas, along with a recording of the song and its lyrics. To answer your question, yes, I am up to something. And no, I will not tell you what it is, only that you will absolutely love it. Please trust that I know you well enough to act as an accurate gauge in this matter.<em>  
><em>I will be in my study if you need anything,<em>  
><em>Artemis.<em>"

She wrinkled her nose. This was not good. He admitted to being up to something.

"D'Arvit" she whispered, thinking that she would probably be seeing Internal Affairs before this vacation was over.

Rolling her eyes, curiosity got the best of her. She grabbed the beautiful box.

Wrapped in tissue paper, she first found a small audio player with tiny speakers. Not quite fairy technology, but pretty nice. She hit 'Play' as she opened the rest of the tissue.

In the back ground, the song "The 12 Days of Christmas" began to play.

_On the First Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree..._

After rolling out all of the tissue, Holly gasped. In her hand was a miniature wreath. The entire thing felt as if it weighed several pounds and it sparkled with small stones of red, green and blue. She immediately knew these were emeralds, garnets and sapphires. On the very top of the wreath was a tiny figurine. A partridge, she realized, a golden partridge with a glass pear in its mouth.

That wasn t all, she realized. Inside the wreath was a photograph, or so it seemed. In reality it was a screen producing several photographs. One was the late Commander Julius Root. Another was of Holly s mother and father s wedding. Yet another was Holly herself at the academy, the day she broke the best record for shooting range accuracy. They continued, bringing tears of mixed emotions to her eyes.

It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. It shown and sparkled in the light, never failing to catch the rays and reflecting them back to her. It was clearly designed for beauty and beauty alone. She knew there was probably some deeper meaning to the item, but for a few moments, she simply enjoyed it for what it was: beautiful.

She was touched. This present had taken a lot of thought and digging on Artemis part. Some of those photographs would have been very difficult to get a hold of, even for him.

After the song finished playing, she smiled and placed the tiny present on the table by her bed.

She turned, heading towards the door. 'Now to grill Artemis about his little plans,' she thought, grinning.

Artemis watched his monitors, smiling openly. The look on Holly's face was well worth any verbal or physical opposition she might throw his way.

On one screen, Foaly cleared his throat, annoyed that Artemis was not listening to his lecture.

The LEP techie was nervous, if truth be told (which it wouldn't). This was a BIG plan. Holly had no idea what would be happening for the next fortnight, or the changes it would bring to her life and career.

It was another of Fowl's infamous plans. One that the Council, Commander and in fact, everyone had backed. Everyone, that is, except Holly, who knew nothing about it. That had been a big challenge over the last few months, just keeping her out of the loop.

Artemis' attention quickly snapped back to Foaly as Holly turned towards her suite's exit.

"We need to continue this at a later time. Holly is headed this way." He reached out and severed the connection with Haven, a grin spreading across his face. He was in for a lot of shouting, he knew, but he hoped it would be worth it by the end.


	4. Two Turtle Doves

A/N: I own nothing.

**Two Turtle Doves**

Artemis was, as usual, up with the sun. He was sitting at his desk as Holly padded into the room.

She was sleepy, but wanted to be with him. She was sure that if she was awake enough to think sensibly, she would have stayed in her bed in the guest room. However, seeing as how it was around 5 am, she decided to tell common sense to screw off.

He did not seem surprised by her casual entrance into his quarters. He only looked up when she approached the desk, instead of the bed.

She had considered her options upon entering his doorway. She could go to the bed, where it smelled like him, where it might still be warm from him sleeping. Or she could go straight to him. He may prove to be interesting this early in the morning. She chose the latter option.

He paused as she ambled closer, sleepily smiling up at him. She walked up to his left side, poking him in the arm.

"Yes?" he responded embarrassingly to her touch, even this early in the day. He felt his heart race, his fingers less stable on the keyboard.

"Cuddle," was her only answer.

Both of his eyebrows reached for his hairline. He had never heard such a blatantly affectionate statement from the Major's mouth. Despite his surprise, however, Artemis couldn't help but oblige.

"Come here, Holly," he said sweetly. He could tell that she was tired and wanted to be held. She wanted to be held by him. He tried to keep his pride from filling his head as he reached down and allowed the small woman to climb into his lap.

Never in their lives had they been so comfortable with each other, or anyone else. He was more than grateful for this change, though.

As she wiggled into a comfortable position, he simply smiled. Her head rested on his chest; her legs curled around up towards her body. She was easily kept in position by his arms. She had managed to somehow arrange herself so that he could still type, if he so chose. However, for the moment, he could only look at her. His thoughts wandered to the previous day, when she had stomped into his room, demanding to know what in the world was going on.

* * *

><p>Holly had barged into his room, about to explode into a tantrum about his plans and how they tended to get her into trouble and how she didn't appreciate being treated like a pawn on one of his chess sets.<p>

She made it about 5 meters towards him before she stopped, staring.

He was just looking at her. Clear eyed, open faced starring. His shoulders were relaxed, there was no tension in his gaze. It was unsettling.

"What?" she demanded.

A smile broke on his face, smearing his features into something almost...beautiful. She mentally chided herself. It was Artemis, he manipulated beauty, appreciated it occasionally, but he never represented it. 'Right?' she asked herself, 'he isn't beautiful, is he?' She paused, not having the answer to her own question.

Not knowing the battle going on in Holly's head, Artemis responded simply, "Did you like your first present?"

She tried, she really did try to keep her thoughts on track. However, his wording threw her off guard.

"Wait, you mean you are really serious about this '12 days' thing?" she asked, incredulously.

"Of course," he answered, "do I ever say anything I don't mean?"

She made a face in response.

"Most of the time..." he corrected.

"Okay, no, you don't. So what's up with this? What are you planning?" she asked. D'arvit, she was losing her thoughts as she stared into his face. That handsome face... 'STOP THAT!' she yelled to herself.

"Please do not worry about that right now," was his only reply.

She screwed up her face at him. She wasn't going down that easily.

"Artemis, what are you up to? I can't get into it with IA again, they will have my acorns."

He could tell she was truly distressed, and that just wouldn't do.

"Holly, would you accompany me downstairs?" he would take her mind off of the plans he had made. He couldn't let her be stressed for any part of her vacation.

Her eyes flashed with suspicion.

"No," she said flatly.

Artemis sighed. He knew she'd be difficult, but it couldn't hurt to try.

"Holly, do you trust me?"

His words pierced her like a dagger. Yes, after everything, she trusted him, and he knew it. He had saved her life and career more times than she cared to name. Even when he had lied about the cause of his mother's apparently Spelltrophy, she had forgiven him. Turns out, as Foaly had not-so-casually mentioned one day, if he hadn't lied to her and she had gone back in time anyway, the Council would have taken her badge away for breaking so many rules for a simple Mud Woman. As the situation stood, even the Councilmen couldn't argue with a fairy trying to stop what could have been an outbreak of plague caused by one of their own. She had originally been furious with Artemis about the incident, but over time, the fact that one lie probably saved her career (and helped the entire LEP get rid of Opal from the past and her plots) had allowed the situation to level out, in Holly's mind.

Yes, she trusted him. And she told him so, grudgingly.

"Do you think I'd willingly do anything that could hurt you or your career?" he asked, knowing the answer, hating that he even had to ask. He tried to keep control of his face as his emotions turned inside him. He didn't want her to be upset. He wanted to make her happy, at any cost. But he couldn't tell her that...yet.

She sighed, thinking, 'He is so difficult sometimes.'

"No," she said simply, meeting his gaze. She had to put effort into not getting lost in his eyes. One, icy blue, a symbol of what he used to be. The other, hers, a sign of the goodness that had taken over. She repressed a shudder. It was still so unnerving to see his eyes, the exact mirror image of hers.

"Alright, then you know whatever I'm up to is not a bad thing. In fact," he said, cheering up, "you will probably quite enjoy it."

Holly didn't like surprises. She never had. Her mother tried to give her a surprise birthday party once. Only once. That was the day that Coral Short saw firsthand what happened when her daughter was faced with trying to be diplomatic. The poor woman had invited all of Holly's class to the party, most of whom were bullied into attending by their parents. Needless to say, Holly's mother never tried to give her another 'surprise' party again.

"Please just tell me," Holly pleaded, remembering how badly her mother had reacted when she planted her fist into one of her classmate's faces for saying that their home was small.

"No," he replied, in the same tone Holly had used just moments before.

"D'arvit," she muttered. She knew she wasn't going to get it out of him.

"Come with me," he insisted. They both knew that this argument wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, and he really didn't want her to sit and think about it for too long. Better to distract her...

Another sigh sounded in the room. "And what," she replied, somewhere between scathingly and sarcastically, "are we going to do?" She knew what he was doing, but she couldn't think of any way to get the information out of him right now.

"How would you like to challenge Myles and Beckett to a snowball fight?"

Now Holly's jaw dropped. This was big. Whatever it was he was hiding, he was willing to go through physical exhaustion, possible humiliation and definite cold to distract her from it. She closed her mouth and considered the situation. She would love to bury the twins in snow balls, and between her LEP suit and the coats at Fowl manor, she knew she wouldn't get too cold. But Artemis had openly volunteered to do something so...childish. Whatever was going on, it was impressive.

After careful consideration, Holly decided that, after all, she had another 11 days to figure out what he was up to, and she didn't want to pass up the chance to smack him with a snowball.

"Alright," she said, finally.

Artemis' eyes lit up. He was actually looking forward to this. He had been much more involved with his brothers since his return home and wouldn't mind watching them try to beat Holly at throwing small objects.

"Really?" he sounded more excited than he'd meant to. 'Oh well,' he thought. He didn't mind Holly knowing that he was actually looking forward to this outing.

"Sure," she replied, "but don't think I'm going to play fair."

"I'd never assume such a thing," was the only reply. Holly stared at his tone, cool and possibly suggestive, and then snapped back to attention.

"I'll let the boys know," she said. "Meet you in the kitchen in ten minutes?" Her question was actually more of an order as she promptly turned and skipped out of the door.

* * *

><p>Artemis smiled at the memory. They had split into teams of two (HollyArtemis and Myles/Beckett, of course) and spent a good deal of time constructing barricades and building up their supply of ammunition. When the snow started getting thrown, it was clear that Myles and Beckett were no match for an LEP Major, with or without Artemis' help. Eventually, Juliet came out to help the twins and the entire competition fell into shambles. By sundown, they had each been tackled, buried, breathless and covered in ice from head to toe.

Holly and Artemis had spent the evening playing board games with Juliet and Butler while the twins retired early. The group managed to make it through most of the games in the house and had progressed to poker before Holly had started to nod off. This time, Holly managed to make it to the guest suite before succumbing to sleep entirely. The rest of the party followed soon after.

He looked at the small creature in his arms, recalling several times when the snowball fight had resulted in one of them landing on top of the other. Juliet and Holly had worked out an amusing system of throwing Holly instead of just a snowball. Myles had nearly passed out when he looked up and suddenly saw the elf rocketing towards him, hands full of snow and moving too quickly to avoid. More often than not, however, Juliet s target was Artemis. He hadn t minded; it meant that he was able to revel in the experience of his heart pumping faster than he could really handle as Holly s bright eyes settled only inches above his face, promptly covering it with snow.

Artemis couldn't help but smile as his heart once again sped up. He had no idea why it never bothered him that Holly had this effect on him; he enjoyed it too much to try to dissect it.

Taking a deep breath and being careful not to jostle the sleeping figure in his arms, Artemis continued on his work.

When Juliet came to check on Artemis an hour later, she found him with his chin resting on Holly's head, fast asleep. After quickly getting a picture to use for blackmail later, she quietly tried to rouse the dozing pair.

After a few failed attempts at simply calling their names, Juliet resorted to the more amusing option: poking a sleeping LEP officer. Sure, she could have gently shook Artemis into wakefulness, but where was the fun in that?

So she poked Holly square in the stomach and pulled her arm out of harm's way. Smart decision, on her part.

Holly awoke by flinging all of her limbs out, knocking herself and Artemis off balance and promptly landing both of them on the floor. The shock of hitting the hard surface so quickly managed to help them both realize where they were and Juliet's strangled laughter explained how they got there. They exchanged glances and when they both realized that the other was not hurt, Holly lunged at Juliet as Artemis checked to make sure that none of his technology had been disturbed in the ruckus.

As Holly chased Juliet out the door, shouting threats to the still-giggling blond, Artemis straightened his clothes. He waited a few moments, until the shouts had lessened enough that he could know that both girls had made it to the kitchen.

He stood, putting his paper work back into the proper folders and files. When he opened the middle drawer of his desk, he pulled out a small jewelry box. He flipped the top open, examining the contents one last time before walking to Holly's room and setting her next gift on her bed.

* * *

><p>Holly didn't get back to her room until far past sunset. Juliet had made good on her promise to drag her to a spa for the day. Every muscle in her body was blissfully eased, her skin was toxin free and her hair was shining even in dull light. She had gone to the spa shaped like a human, but the treatment s and massage's effects were still strong as she shrank back to her normal size.<p>

She was truthfully surprised to find the box on her bed. She was under the impression that the spa trip had been her treat for the Second Day of Christmas.

Curiously, she picked up the box and the note attached.

"Doves are commonly considered the purest of all birds. I know you love to fly. When you wear these earrings to bed, you will dream of being in the air like these doves, free and pure."

Inside the box she found a pair of what looked like bird-shaped diamonds. She gasped for a moment, seeing their many facets shine in the light given off by a bedside lamp. Upon closer inspection, however, she realized that they were not diamonds. In fact, she would be willing to bet that these little jewels were worth far more than a diamond of the same size.

They were each filled to the brim with magic. She sensed that No1 had something to do with these contraptions until she saw tiny mechanical parts. Now she knew Foaly was probably in on it too.

As she attempted to process what she was holding, the complexities that must have been involved in their creation, Artemis walked in the doorway.

"What do you think?" he asked, almost cautiously. He was trying to decide if he needed to run as quickly as his legs would carry him away from the occasionally volatile elf.

She looked up at him, tears brimming in her eyes. "I love them," she said, simply.

Yet again, she surprised him. He hadn't been expecting this reaction. He relaxed and decided it was safe to walk to her.

"Why the waterworks?" he asked, trying to lighten the moment. "Why are you so good to me? she asked, sounding almost helpless. And No1, and Foaly. I know they must have helped with these."

He smiled, not at all surprised that she had recognized the signatures of her friends on the items.

"Why do you doubt me?" he asked, throwing her out of her thought process.

"How do you always make everything about you?" she began to yell, before she saw the laughter in his eyes.

"...you little prick. You did that on purpose," she accused, already smiling.

"Yes," he replied.

"Thank you," she breathed, looking again at the priceless items in her hands. She looked up at him, pure gratitude on her face.

"Come back downstairs," Artemis said, trying not to stare at her perfect face. "Juliet wants to watch a movie with you."

"Alright, just let me put these up."

Artemis waited by the door as she very carefully placed the box and note beside the other gift. His heart was swelling almost painfully at seeing how happy she was with her presents. He glanced down to avoid grinning at her. 'And it's only the Second Day,' he thought.


	5. Three French Hens

A/N: Awww, y'all are wonderful! Thank you for the reviews. :) I'm glad you guys like it.

Also...I feel like the last few chapters were rushed, on my part. I wanted to get the story going. Now, however, I'm hoping to be more detailed and smoother with the ideas. What does this mean for you? Longer chapters. I hope you don't mind too badly.

Disclaimer: I own...Nada :)

**Three French Hens**

Holly wandered down to the kitchen. She was somewhere between calm, elated, ecstatic and a little drunk on dreams. She had spent the entire night in the sky, or so it had seemed. She shivered slightly, remembering how realistic it felt. She could smell the air, feel the wind on her face and body. Her dreams were designed to allow her the most realistic experience possible. There was no shimmer suit, no LEP helmet, no Foaly in her ear telling her to be above the clouds. She had drifted through her own memories of flying, but with the wonderful new experience of being totally free. She had grazed the water of the Mediterranean, wandered through the street lights of Italy, touched the branches of ancient oaks brimming with magic.

She was so lost in recalling her dreams that she barely realized she had made it to the kitchen. Juliet calling her name brought her back to reality.

"Oh, hi. Good morning," the sleepy elf said.

Juliet giggled. "Um, Holly, it's three in the afternoon."

"WHAT?" Holly choked out. She had slept away most of the day!

Juliet started laughing at her pained expression. "It's okay. Artemis warned us to let you sleep. He said something about really amazing dreams of flying, which we all know you love. Was it as awesome as he was saying it would be?"

"Better. So much better," Holly sighed, once again drifting into her memories of the realistic experiences.

Juliet handed her some juice as she sat at the breakfast bar. "That's good," she said. There was a twinkle in Juliet's eyes, Holly was sure of it. She was about to ask what it was about when her stomach growled quite loudly.

Juliet laughed again as Holly looked up, guiltily. "I think I need to eat."

"Probably," Juliet managed to spit out between peals of laughter. "What would you like? It's past lunch, but you can still have breakfast if you'd like."

"Fruit?"

"I can do that," the blond winked.

They talked about the twins' most recent excursions into the world of science, music and art as Holly ate. It seemed like most of what the boys did was break things. When she pointed this out to Juliet, the younger woman just smiled. "Basically," she agreed.

"So," Juliet said, clearing the dishes, "what costume do you want for the Ball?"

Holly looked up, surprised. "Costume?"

"Well duh, it's a Masquerade Ball. You have to have a costume." Juliet rolled her eyes, seemingly missing the look of confusion and slight annoyance that crossed Holly's features.

"Artemis didn't mention that..."

"Of course he didn't. He's a boy, Juliet explained, like it was just common sense. He can go in a tux with a mask and call it good. You, however, need a costume. I think Artemis actually had an idea for you..."

"And he didn't tell me?" Holly was debating between feeling annoyed and just accepting this as not surprising.

"Just go ask him about it," Juliet shrugged. "I think he's in his study."

"Probably," Holly gave Juliet a hug and smiled. "Thanks for breakfast...or lunch...or whatever. I'll let you know about the costume thing. Will it be difficult to put together?"

Juliet let out a harsh laugh and made a wolfish smile. "This is me you're talking to, Holly. I can make Dom blend into a crowd of midgets if need be, I can make you look wonderful for the Ball."

Holly shook her head as she laughed and went to go find Arty.

* * *

><p>"So, what's this I hear about a costume?"<p>

Artemis started. Holly had managed to sneak up on him. She grinned, knowing he was surprised at her sudden appearance.

"How did you sleep?" Artemis asked as Holly moved closer.

She smiled up at him. "Wonderfully. Thank you so much. It was the best sleep of my life."

"I take it the earrings worked well?"

"Very. I really felt like I was flying. It was so realistic. I want to know how you managed it, but I have a feeling that the lecture wouldn't be worth getting an answer." She was smiling bigger now, always loving to make fun of him.

"You are probably correct," he supplied, only making her smile more. "I am happy that you like them."

"I do," she said, a whimsical look on her face. Artemis blushed, thinking of a few of his dreams where he had heard her say those same words with that exact expression. He sighed lightly, banishing the memory from his mind.

"So, I take it you spoke to Juliet?" Artemis prompted, changing the subject.

"Yes, I did," she shook her head and tried to focus on why she had come into Arty's study in the first place. "What's this about a costume? And she said that you had an idea for one? Do I not get a choice?" she joked, lightly accusing him of being a bit bossy.

He simply smiled. "I do have an idea in mind " he said, leaving his sentence open.

"...okay, are you going to tell me what it is?" she narrowed her eyes at him, sensing that he was hiding something.

"No," was his quick reply.

"So, what? I have to attend a ball in some costume you cooked up? How do I know I won't hate it?" She tried not to think of the possibilities of a costume Artemis would design for her. She knew that it would be decent at the very least. It would probably be beautiful and dreadfully expensive. It would probably have several different meanings, only a few of which he would actually explain to her. She tried to not think of costumes he might choose if there weren't 200 expected guests that included his parents...

Her face began to turn red, she coughed to cover up the blush. "Well?" she demanded.

"I promise you will not hate it. You will probably quite enjoy the irony of it."

"If you make me show up looking like Tinkerbelle, you're a dead Mud Boy."

He chuckled at the thought. "Mud Man, he corrected her, thank you very much. I have been legal under Irish law for quite a while now."

"Don't change the subject, Arty. I mean it. I am not going anywhere covered in glitter and gauze wings."

"Do you really think I would do that to you?" he asked, seriously.

She met his gaze. No, she didn't think he would do that. And he knew it. Annoying genius.

"No," she replied, just as serious.

He smiled. It was infectious and she began to relax and grin up at him.

"I promise, Holly, that you will love the costume."

She sighed. "I believe you, somehow."

"Of course you do, I'm always right."

Holly rolled her eyes. Cocky Mud Boy...well, Mud Man, as he had pointed out.

'Oh well,' she thought, 'He really is almost always right. Not that I'm going to tell him that.

"So what's the plan for the rest of the night?" she asked, changing the subject.

"First, you should have Juliet measure you for your costume and other clothes for the rest of your stay. Florists, chefs, designers and others involved with the Ball will be arriving tomorrow for preparation. It would be best if they did not notice that there was a 3 foot, fully grown woman with pointy ears in the manor."

He made a good point.

"Okay, so I'll go shopping with Juliet. What happens after that?"

Artemis began to chuckle. She just raised an eyebrow in silent response.

"Holly, have you ever been shopping with Juliet?"

"Well, no..." she was starting to see what he was hinting at.

"You will probably not have time to do anything but drag yourself into bed once you return from shopping."

She groaned. He was right. Juliet would probably tire her out with all the fancy shops.

She tugged on an ear. She did not like this idea, but she couldn't think of a way out.

Once again reading her thoughts, Artemis supplied, "You really should go. I know you have missed Juliet, and this would give you both ample chances to catch up. And you cannot keep borrowing her clothes when you activate the rune. For one thing, you two are of different proportions and you will probably run out of things that fit."

"I know you did not just call me fat," Holly said flatly.

The shock in his face was completely worth sounding girly, she decided, trying not to giggle.

"What? I never-" he sputtered. She managed to keep her face straight, barely. He looked like he steam was about to come streaming out of his ears from embarrassment.

"I did NOT mean that, Holly! I just meant that you are physically more..." he was struggling for the correct wording. Holly was the only creature on the planet or below it that could make Artemis Fowl stutter. "You have a better figure," he finally spat out. Now it was Holly's turn to stare. 'Did Arty just say that?'

She met his gaze, red creeping into his entire face. 'Yes, he did just say that,' she decided.

"Well," she began. And then stopped. She really had no idea what to say to that.

"This is awkward." she finally said, quietly.

He immediately laughed, grateful for the topic shift. He gathered his composure, deciding to continue on the brave (if accidental) statement he had made.

"It's true, Holly. You are a beautiful woman. Elf or human shaped, you are stunning."

He was gently staring at her, willing her to believe the words that almost tumbled out of his mouth.

It was Holly's turn to blush. She tried to meet his gaze, but failed miserably.

She stared at her feet and finally muttered, "Thank you, Arty."

When she had gathered the guts to look at him again, his eyes were level and calm. He was simply looking at her. He wasn't judging, he wasn't treating her like a piece of meat or something to use. He was being truthful and open. He didn't do it often, but she had gotten good at knowing when he was being totally honest.

She let the words soak in as she met his stare. 'Beautiful' and 'stunning' weren't words she commonly heard directed at her. She was the crazy girly Captain. Well, Major now. Either way, most guys were either scared of her, intimidated by her or just saw the results of so many years of working out and wanted to see what she looked like underneath her shimmer suit.

Replaying Artemis words in her head, there was a warmth spreading from her stomach, a nervousness mixed with pleasure. It was a strange feeling, one she only associated with Artemis. She had yet to figure out what it meant, but she was in no hurry. Somehow, she knew she had time to work it all out.

Artemis let himself once again enjoy the sight of her. He had meant every word he said and never considered taking them back. The same warm feeling was spreading through his veins, nervous and pleasurable with a good deal of wanting. He knew what it was, but he was not going to give into it right now.

Holly finally smiled, sighing gently. She walked over to him, stood on her tip toes and kissed his cheek. She hovered for a few moments after making contact, nuzzling her nose into his soft skin. She shifted slightly, pausing by his ear. She could feel the heat radiating from his skin from this close; she could almost hear his heart beating faster, like hers was. Took one last breath of him and whispered, "Thank you. Thank you so much, Arty," before turning quickly on her heel and walking out the door to find Juliet.

Artemis did not move. He didn't think he could. His eyes were locked on the opposite wall, willing himself to breathe. He seemed to have forgotten how to do so. He swallowed, hard. He had not been expecting that, he was not prepared for her to be that close.

'Little tease,' he thought. 'I suppose I deserve it, for knocking her off balance with the compliments. She is not used to being treated like a beautiful woman instead of some sort of prize. I will have to fix this,' he decided.

He slowly allowed his hand to touch the spot she had kissed. It still blazed with fire from her touch. He closed his eyes, committing the feeling to memory.

Finally, he opened his eyes, his breath under control and his heart beating at a more normal rate.

He walked over to his book shelf and took down a rather large box. It was the Third Day of Christmas, after all. He had a gift to give.

As he walked down the hall to the guest room, Artemis purposely ignored the slight bounce that had worked its way into his step.

* * *

><p>It was nearly midnight. Holly just wanted to collapse and pass out. She didn't even want to dream tonight. Juliet had completely worn her out.<p>

Holly had to hand it to her, though. The girl could SHOP. They had spent nearly six hours in and out of dressing rooms, boutiques and private viewing parlors reserved only for VIP guests (Juliet seemed to have been a VIP in all of the stores).

The tired fairy dropped her pile of bags on the floor in front of the bed. She finally traced the rune on her wrist, backwards, to allow her to shrink back to her normal size.

Artemis and Juliet had assured Holly that having a strange pattern on her arm was not going to surprise any humans Holly encountered. She didn't recall much of the lecture that followed, but it involved something about human culture shifting and body modification becoming more popular, blah blah blah. She had listened enough to figure out that the rune wouldn't bring her unwanted attention and had ignored the other two for the rest of the conversation.

Once back to her normal size, Holly changed into her night clothes.

About to climb into bed, she noticed a note and another box.

She couldn't resist, she rolled her eyes and huffed like a child. She didn't know why in the world this silly Mud Man kept giving her gifts. 'Does he not realize that just being here is enough?'

She supposed that this probably all played into his little plan. She was miffed that she didn't know what the plan was, but at this point, arguing with him was getting nowhere. She would just have to wait until he decided to spill.

The box was plain. Holly was both surprised and suspicious. She opened it and gasped in shock as the four sides of the box fell flat to reveal what seemed to be a large, multi faceted ball on a golden stick with a square base. The ball that was lit and shimmered from the inside. It seemed to be covered in bumps that were colored like the globes of the surface of the earth she had seen in museums or science labs.

She decided to look at the note.

_"This globe is full of fairy technology and just a touch of magic. The small bumps covering the surface are actually hundreds of tiny crystals, each infused with a small amount of the earth's natural power._  
><em>What is the purpose? you may ask.<em>  
><em>The globe is programmed to respond only to your touch. When you want to locate someone, just think of them while touching the base and the globe will search all of Foaly's computers for their location, finally lighting up their location.<em>  
><em>It is also programmed to accept orders for mapping purposes. It has several different settings (and can have more, if you wish).<em>  
><em>One setting can show you where all of the Ritual sites are located and which one is closest to you. Another will show you shuttle ports.<em>  
><em>Yet another will show all of the places you have visited and a fourth can show all of the places you wish to visit some day.<em>

_For now, however, the globe is programmed to show only one thing: where we will be going tomorrow._

_We leave early, so get some rest._

_Artemis."_

Holly rubbed her eyes. She was far too tired for all of this. She did look over the globe to see where it was they were supposed to be going tomorrow.

Hm, it seemed to be lit up over Paris, France.

She wondered what he could be planning, but she really only cared about moving the surprisingly light globe and passing out.

She curled up in bed, her final thoughts playing memories of Arty's skin against hers.


	6. Preparation

**Hey guys, here's the next chapter! A little background info, mostly.**

**It's short, but I didn't want it with the next chapter's plot. It will be along soon. :)**

**Also, I'm loving the reviews! Thank you so much! Keep 'em comin'.**

**Preparation **

"Thank you, Butler," said Artemis.

"Of course," Butler replied. An outsider would be surprised by the gentle tones exchanged by the giant man and his pale charge. Rarely did Butler wear anything but a scowl outside the doors of the manor, but he had a small smile as he brought breakfast to the young man.

"How is everything progressing?" It was probably the first time Butler knew a majority of the details of one of Artemis' plans. It was certainly the first time he had managed to be completely surprised by one of them. This was big, even for Artemis, and required the assistance of everyone involved. The timing had to be just right. Part of the series of events was already in place. It was nowhere near complete, though, and if anything went wrong, two years of planning, magic and quite a bit of the Fowl fortune would go down the drain for nothing.

"It is all going according to plan, old friend. Today Holly and I will go to Paris, accompanied by you, of course. Juliet is staying here to assist Mother with plans for the Ball while Father takes the twins out to the Club for a little get-away until tomorrow night. I have a conference with Foaly in a few minutes to check on his progress." Artemis took a few sips of his coffee, lightly considering the fruit Butler had brought. He would need his strength today, to keep up with a certain hyper elf, but his nerves were on edge, making him queasy. Not that he would be sharing that with anyone, even his most trusted accomplice.

Butler knew his charge well enough to detect the slight frown that passed his brow. Taking a deep breath, he placed his huge hand on Artemis' shoulder, too lightly to even rumple the young man's pristine shirt. "You are doing something wonderful. Your name will be in tongues above and below the earth for centuries to come."

"Most likely," Artemis agreed lightly, raising a brow slightly, "But will it be enough?"

"Enough?"

"For her," Artemis replied simply.

Butler had known Artemis' true reasons behind this history-making plan, but this was the first he had heard the smaller man admit it aloud.

Artemis spent two years, countless hours, a fair amount of gold and quite a bit of bribes to get this far, now all that needed to happen was to set the final pieces in place and then the big reveal. Everyone knew except her. And everyone but Artemis was floored by the complete selflessness and blatant care he took with the entire thing. Artemis, Butler suspected, was on pins and needles, always wondering if it was going to be enough for her.

Butler closed his hand on Artemis' shoulder, applying more pressure. "Artemis, you are too far into this to be worrying now. Everything is going according to plan and you need to be focusing your attentions on more immediate things, like keeping your mouth shut in Paris." Butler was amused at his own joke. Artemis wouldn't spill if he wanted to. It wasn't in the plan.

Artemis tried to smile, he really did. The result was a lopsided attempt that made his face look pained. He was saved from responding by a pinging noise from his speakers.

Foaly's furry face lit up the main screen in front of the men. Butler quickly dropped his hand from Artemis' shoulder.

"Okay, Fowl, hey Big Man! How's it going? I noticed that it snowed another 6 inches last night. It's a good thing none of our people have to be aboveground for this mess."

"Good morning to you too, pony boy," Artemis greeted the centaur smiling. As much as they fought and constantly tried to out-hack each others' systems, Artemis had acquired a soft spot for the fellow genius.

"Enough with the pleasantries," Foaly interjected. "Everything is in place. We begin work in two hours."

Artemis nodded. "We will be on the way to France by then. Just make sure that no one is seen. The manor will have people in and out today and tomorrow. I cannot guarantee that one of them won't decide to wander somewhere he or she is not supposed to go."

Foaly smiled. "Oh we've got that taken care of," he took a bite of the carrot he was apparently holding. "Recon will be standing by if anything comes up."

"You used Holly's own division?" Butler was shocked. They had gotten lucky a few times so far, when Holly had walked into a room unannounced or noticed that Foaly seemed to have acquired more cases than normal that she didn't have clearance to ask him about.

"Yep!" Foaly laughed, "She has no idea. Nor will she. Mud Boy here covered all of the likely possibilities, and several are less likely than a dwarf learning table manners."

All of them grimaced. They each had experiences with a specific dwarf's astounding lack ability to comprehend basic dinner-time rules.

Artemis was seemingly extra concerned for anything that might throw his plans off. Little did Butler know just how concerned Artemis really was about this plan. He had planned it out, worked every possible scenario and decided this was the best, and so to him, the only way to do it.

If it was not perfect, it might fail. And failure, to Artemis, was not an option. It had to work. He was going to show her, and the world, how much he cared about her.


	7. Four Calling Birds

Hi. :)

So, it's been ages. Sorry about that. But here's another chapter.

I'm going back and reading a few of the books again as refreshers, especially AC because I am making sure that the little details are still working.

I own didly.

**Four Calling Birds**

"Holly? Holly, we're here."

The sound of her name brought the wide-eyed elf back to her immediate surroundings. Holly broke her gaze away from the wondrous world beyond the windows of the rental car they were taking from the air port to the hotel in Paris. She met the face of the young man who was trying to get her attention.

"Okay," she said, drunkenly. She closed her eyes and sighed out of a content excitement. She loved Paris and had been gazing out the window longingly the entire car ride.

He was grateful for her distraction. Artemis had spent the last hour just staring at her while she stared out of the window. Her face had danced with elation, excitement, occasional confusion, appreciation and happiness the whole drive from the small air strip into the city's heart. He had enjoyed watching her then, he had been too preoccupied on the flight over to relax at all. Last minute details were checked and checked again, along with the LEP's progress on the manor grounds. Eventually, Foaly got tired of the Mud Boy always checking over his shoulder and blocked all of Artemis' available connections to the ongoing project. He had made a good argument, though. Artemis did need to focus on Holly. That was the point of this entire thing.

So focus he had. Every slight shift in her features, he memorized. Every time her ear twitched or her lips moved, he noticed. He reveled in watching the sun's slight rays dance on her soft skin, alighting on her fiery hair. He felt his very muscles relaxing in her calm presence.

Now, he took a deep breath and turned away as the elf sleepily traced the rune on her hand to make her grow a few feet taller. He cleared his throat loudly. She had momentarily forgotten that her clothes needed adjusting when she changed her shape. Snapping out of her dream-state, Holly quickly adjusted the dress she was wearing began to put on her human-sized coat.

When she was dressed, he turned back and met her eyes. They hadn't spoken much that morning, it was early and Holly was having a hard enough time putting one foot in front of the other, let alone making conversation. Now, though, after sleeping on the plane and staring at the French countryside, she was awake and ready to see what Artemis was up to for the day. She met his eyes solidly, smiling. A sudden flare of warmth flooded her stomach as she struggled not to lose herself in those eyes. Maybe it was because she was always looking at a reflection of her own, or maybe because of the ideas stirring behind them, but she loved to look at his eyes.

They sat in silence for another moment, each fighting the urge to close the 6 inch gap between them. What they would do without that gap, neither knew, but they each knew they were ready to find out. Of course, they wouldn't tell each other that.

They didn't move until the valet opened the door. Holly spun around and hopped out of the car, sliding around the valet easily. Artemis' mouth twitched at her showing off, considering telling her such a flirt. He decided the smile on her face as he stumbled out of the vehicle would be worth her embarrassing the seemingly slow valet.

Eventually everyone made it to the penthouse. Holly tried not to gawk at the beautiful space. Dark wooden floors and walls, high ceilings, a balcony with glass doors…this was far more grand than any hotel or even public space she had ever been inside. She was gleefully examining the furniture's intricate patterns when she heard Butler's voice coming from one of the bedrooms.

Holly walked in to find Butler looking at Artemis and Artemis looking at her. She stopped, knowing that whatever was going on probably wasn't going to brighten her day.

"Um, we, er…" Artemis started, startled that he was stuttering. "We have a predicament," he stated simply.

Holly blinked. "Well, are you going to tell me what it is, or do I have to stand here and guess?" she asked sarcastically.

Butler and Artemis both winced. She made a good point.

Butler cleared his throat, glancing at Artemis, who put his hand up to the bridge of his nose again.

"There are only two bedrooms in the suite," he said quickly, chancing a glance in her direction. He breathed, she wasn't throwing anything.

Holly shrugged, rolling her eyes. "So? Artemis, you and I can share a bed. We know Butler takes up a whole one by himself, so it'll have to be us. I don't mind, is that what you were worried about?" She looked at the men.

Butler had a knowing look on his face while Artemis was turning a bit red. It seemed that's exactly what he was worried about. Holly didn't see why. She didn't mind the idea, really, as long as she knew about it. 'Honestly, it would be wonderful to sleep next to him…' she thought whistfully.

She smiled up at Artemis. She knew that it was a bad idea to want to be so close to him, but she also knew that she really no longer cared. She wasn't sure why, but she wasn't in the mood for answering that question.

"It's fine, really Arty," the elf smiled up at him. He saw a little sparkle flash in her eyes and he was suddenly quite alright with sleeping next to her for a night. He had no idea what she had planned, but even if she decided to sit and yell at him all night for something, it would be worth it to him.

"Alright then," Artemis started walking towards the larger bedroom, grabbing luggage as he went, "We should get ready for today's adventure."

"And what would that be?" Holly asked, following his lead. They set their luggage down and started to grab what they would need for the day.

"Have you ever visited Disneyland in the snow?"

Holly stared, today's shirt forgotten in her hands.

"Are you serious?" she asked quietly. Her reaction surprised Artemis. He had expected her to be happy about the opportunity, but she was not acting the way he would have hoped.

"Well, yes," he hesitated, trying to think of other things they could do if she did not wish to go to what was considered one of the most fun places in Europe.

Her shrill screech of (what he hoped was) joy knocked him solidly out of his concerning thoughts. The next thing he noticed was his breath being knocked out of him by what he would guess was a 3 foot tall rocket, but he knew to be a very excited Holly.

The screech had changed into what Artemis suspected were words, but he couldn't be quite sure because they were being shouted at his ribs. Holly had smacked into him face first and had yet to move or, as far as he could tell, breathe.

He pulled the smaller woman away from his person with a decent bit of strength (he silently thanked Butler for patiently working with him for the last two years, he was much stronger than he had been before the Complex) and sat down with her on the bed. He choked back at a laugh on the cherry red expression on the elf's wide-eyed face. Somehow, he didn't think "excited" was quite the correct term. Perhaps "about to explode" was a better description.

He strained, but managed to figure out what she was attempting to say.

"Really, really, really, really? Do you mean it? This is great! This is awesome! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

At this realization, Artemis started laughing harder than he had laughed in months. This was beyond the reaction he had hope for, and the look on her face was so…he didn't think he could form the word in his head…cute. She was cute. 'Oh wow,' he thought, 'I'm in so much trouble if now she can look 'cute' too…" He giggled. Somehow, he didn't mind any additional problems at this point.

Holly finally stopped to breathe. Heaving, she stared at Artemis' laughing face.

"This is too much, Artemis. I mean, are you sure? This seems like so much all for me. Why?"

Artemis stopped mid-laugh, annoyed that the conversation had changed so quickly.

"Holly, why can't I just spoil you a little?" A slight smile played on his lips as he pulled her into a tight hug on the bed. He tried very hard not think of how quickly she might punch him for being so brash.

Hitting him wasn't on the elf's mind, however. She was genuinely puzzled. What had she done that deserved this? It was a fairy's dream, even in the snow. And to do it with a slightly crazy millionaire and being able to blend in with the humans were two very nice perks.

"This is too much, Arty. I mean it." She met his eyes in what she hoped was a stubborn fashion.

Artemis did something then that would still surprise him in the years to come. He reached his hand out and placed it softly against her cheek, pulling her closer, closer.

When she was barely an inch away, Artemis touched his lips to the top of her cheek, kissing it briefly. He then moved up and kissed her forehead, just barely touching it. He turned her head once again and met her nose with his, touching foreheads. They were staring into each others' eyes, closer than they'd ever been.

Holly's head had sufficiently turned off. Artemis' had started moving so fast that he fought to breathe.

"I am doing this because I want to, Holly. As you well know, I tend to get what I want." His voice was softer than a whisper, harsh and a little nervous.

Holly managed to start putting thoughts together. She didn't move; she couldn't. Either she really didn't want to or was too busy enjoying the entire thing to care.

"And why do you want to spoil me?" She asked quickly.

"Because it's fun." Came the grinning reply. "It makes you happy, which is fun for me."

Holly considered this idea for a moment. At this point, she was burning up, head throbbing in her chest, up to her throat and ears. Her blood pressure was sky rocketing and the only thing she felt like she had any control over was her breath. She couldn't maker her right hand leave his knee, where it had fallen when he pulled her close, or make her left hand leave his chest, where it had wandered of its own accord. Her head was flooding with sensory overload. She had never been this close to him. She could smell his cologne, feel his skin on hers, detect his jumping heart-rate, see the sparkle in his eye that no one else ever was close enough to see, no one but her. He never let anyone but her get this close.

She struggled to get her ideas organized, shaking her head slightly on the spot, closing her eyes and taking a breath to argue.

Artemis was just a little overwhelmed. The most beautiful woman he'd ever laid eyes on was closer than he'd allowed another human, ever. He knew she could hear his staggered breath, feel the warmth in his cheeks, notice the racing heart in his chest. But right now, he did not want to be arguing with her about this plan and his decisions. Damn it, he just wanted her to enjoy it, not question it. 'Oh well,' he thought with a sigh, 'I wouldn't love her if she were any different, any less difficult or argumentative.' He managed to ignore that he had just put in to actual formation how he felt. He instead focused on this slightly aggravating, frustrating and wonderful little elf.

"Holly, stop arguing. I am doing this and unless you do not wish for it to occur, which I highly doubt, please stop questioning me."

When she made a noise as if to argue, he moved his hand from cradling her face to putting the very top of his index finger on her lips.

Her breath hitched audibly, her eyes crossed to try to look at his finger.

"Holly," he whispered, moving his lips to barely touch the side of his finger opposite her, "hush. Go get ready."

He let the sound of his voice hang in the air for another second before he moved away from her in one smooth motion, only allowing a hand to steady her in case she fell over, which she nearly did.

Holly still wasn't saying anything, and Artemis had enough time to realize this when she sat up straight and met his eyes directly.

The moment held for a few seconds, Artemis held his breath awaiting Holly's response.

She suddenly slammed her eyes shut and stuck her tongue out at him. She opened her eyes, now smiling.

He grinned in response, looking at her for a while longer. He then turned around and walked out to talk to Butler about the day's security procedures.


	8. The City of Lights

**Hello, guys!**

**I know I've been gone a while. I'm very sorry. So, as my apology, here is the longest chapter yet and a cliffie :)**

**Thank you guys so much for the reviews. I love them! If you want me to respond, please send me a PM.**

**Also, I have a few requests for suggestions from y'all...**

**a) I'm doing the 12 days thing and this includes 12 fabulous gifts...I'm running out of ideas for gifts that can be impressive enough to fit with the story. Suggestions are very welcome.**

**b) What do you guys want to see happen? :) I can't promise anything, but I'd love to hear how you all think this will end/ want it to end. **

**And now, on to the chapter.**

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><p><strong>The City of Lights<strong>

To be fair, Artemis knew Holly was going to go a little crazy.

He did not, however, realize just how excited she would get, and that the resulting actions would be momentous enough that he would pause every so often just to commit them to his memory.

Her face shown bright and open for the five hours they spent at Disneyland Paris. She would randomly dash off and grab a handful of snow and begin pelting it at Artemis. The first time this happened, Artemis didn't really know how to react- an odd occurrence for him. But with little effort he was smiling and laughing with the human-shaped elf and snowball fights became a way to pass the time between attractions.

Holly's favorite ride was the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. Breakneck speeds with no protection around her face and Aerosmith blasting at every turn was her idea of perfection. When Artemis and Holly stumbled off the ride (Butler was too big to be strapped in) they nearly collapsed in the snow from laughing so hard at the looks on each others' faces during the twists and turns.

Her running, jumping and bouncing through the park was amusing to no end, it seemed. They laughed at every twist and turn in the path. Holly danced in the light snowfall, pulling Artemis along into circles and ungraceful dance steps as they walked in a way that felt like neither of them had anywhere to go. Artemis relaxed as he was nearly dragged along the park by what he could only describe as vibrant muse. He found himself composing operas while being pelted in the face with snowballs and designing architecture that would make a person literally happier while he was shoved into snow drifts. As he composed and created, he could not help but wonder how this tiny creature could make him so elated while she seemed to be attempting to cause him bodily harm.

She could not even sit still as they stopped for warm drinks at a small café. At first she just bounced a leg while the three warmed up for a moment. By the time they walked out of the door, Artemis trying to ignore the amused looks of the staff, Holly had begun to visibly bounce in the chair soon followed by her getting up and dancing to an up-beat song that played over the PA system. She was twirling around tables by the time Artemis and Butler gulped down their coffees in surprise. Once back outside, Holly laughed at the surprised looks on their faces.

"I'm having fun," she said, simply. She knew that the only people who would ever know she was being so silly were the men she was with, and they would be unlikely to ever mention it after this day was finished, so she did not care what anyone thought about her actions. This was one of the most fun days she had had in decades.

Eventually, not even the excitement of bouncing around one of the most humanly 'magical' places in the world could keep the cold from making Holly's naturally elfin body slightly miserable. When Artemis noticed that Holly was spending more time rubbing her arms than trying to cover him in snowballs, he declared this part of the day finished and ushered everyone back to the hotel.

In the limo, the two exhausted adventurers tried to keep their eyes open, but occasionally even genii and LEP hotshots lose battles of will against themselves. When the door to the car opened at the hotel, the valet looked quizzically at Butler. Butler had noticed the silence from his passengers while he drove, but even he raised an eyebrow when he looked in and found Holly's (thankfully) human-sized head resting on Artemis' chest as the two slept, arms intertwined around each other. The tall man quietly cleared his throat, waking the two sleepers.

Holly's first thought was that the vehicle was no longer moving and that she was in a different (admittedly more comfortable) position than when she went to sleep. Artemis' first thought was that he was not in the mood to be awakened from the dream he had been having about a firey red-headed figure that he could almost recognize.

Despite the grumbling, both of them sat up and stumbled out of the car. Butler tipped the valet well, nodding just enough that the valet knew not to tell a soul of what he'd seen. This was perhaps a little over the top on Butler's part, seeing as how the valet had no idea who these people actually were, but 'better safe than sorry' was a good theory in the Eurasian's mind.

After they had taken off their wet outer clothing, Artemis and Holly took seats by the fireplace in the suite's main room while Butler sent the wet laundry to the maids for cleaning.

As they relaxed and let their skin finally feel direct warmth, they discussed options for the rest of the evening.

Artemis suggested an opera. Holly suggested seeing the Eiffel Tower.

"The Tower, really?" inquired Artemis, surprised. "But you can see any of Paris if you fly over it at night, from much better views than the Tower has to offer."

"True," Holly agreed, "but that's different than actually experiencing the trip to the top. I have never been able to do that, but I've always wanted to. Paris is so beautiful at night. Foally won't let me take missions that will take me over this part of France anymore. I've gotten in trouble a few times for lingering around until nightfall and then flying too low to see everything. I haven't seen the skyline in a few years now." She sounded sad and distant, suddenly missing something she had enjoyed so much.

"Well, I hardly say no to an argument like that. Besides, this is _your_ trip, Holly. I will take you wherever you wish to go, whenever you wish you wish to go there." He spoke softly, gazing to her eyes intently, watching the flames from the fireplace play off her disheveled hair.

"Really, you don't mind? I bet you'll be bored." Holly was excited despite her cautious tone. She had originally assumed that the day was over, but of course Artemis would want to something else. She wished the idea had occurred to her earlier, she could have been prepared for his likely unenthusiastic response to her suggestion.

He gave her a lopsided smile. "Holly?" he asked.

"Yes, Arty?" she replied.

He leaned in, touching his forehead to hers for the second time that day. "This is for you. I want to make your dreams come true. If you want to go to the Eiffel Tower, then that is where we shall go. I am happy to just be with you and to see you enjoying yourself. You should really get that idea through your stubborn Recon head, Major Short. You still have over a week to remain here; I would rather not have to argue my intentions every morning and night." His grin spread to his twinkling eyes, knowing he was going to get yelled at for making fun of her.

He was not disappointed.

Her head shot up, a blaze equal to fire in front of them shown in her mixed eyes. "Did you really just call me the stubborn one, Mud Boy?" She took a deep breath, pausing to prepare an admittedly weak rant about him being a nasty hypocrite and not knowing how to admit that he didn't know everything. When she looked back at him, she let the breath out in a huff.

He was shaking from repressed laughter. His hands clapped over his mouth to keep from making a single sound while she had prepared her rant. When she finally met his eyes, he burst into pent up laughter, falling over when the effort to stay sitting became too strenuous.

She promptly got angrier. He knew he should say something, but he couldn't form words through the laughter.

She quickly stood up and marched out the door into the bedroom they were sharing. He could hear her slamming the bathroom door and the shower running soon after. His laughter finally ended, he got off the floor and followed her, a smile still playing on his face.

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><p>She was muttering in the shower. Cursing, to be precise.<p>

'D'Arvit, he is so infuriating!' she thought, as she rested her cheek against the marble wall. 'Why did he have to go and ruin my good mood? And I'm not stubborn!'

She let out a silent scream of frustration as she let the hot water cover her head as she massaged her once-again pointy ears. She had changed back to elf shape when they had reached the hotel rooms.

Letting the stream hit her back, she heard a knock and the door opening.

"Holly?" Artemis asked, walking in the bathroom and over to the shower.

"Artemis, get out. I'm naked!" Holly shrieked.

"I would assume as much, seeing as you are taking a shower and your clothes are on the floor out here." His tone was calm, if slightly amused.

"So why are you still in here?" she inquired sarcastically. Her face was getting warmer and she knew the shower's warmth was not to blame. She was naked, her clothes on the floor and the towel was on the other wall. She felt more than a little vulnerable, but not as much as she had expected. A not-so-small part of her brain decided to point out that Holly might not mind if he could see her. She shook that idea away and waited for his response.

"Holly, the entrance to the shower is over 5 feet away and all of the walls are solid marble. I cannot see you, and even if I could, I would have come in here. I would just have averted my eyes" he added quickly, turning beet red. He could not help but mentally admit that he was probably lying. He did not know if it was possible for him not to look at Holly under normal circumstances, let alone if she was in a hot shower. He was a hot-blooded man, genius or no.

"So why are you in here?" she snapped.

"To ask why you got angry," he replied, still grinning.

"Artemis!" she shouted, "You hard headed human!" Artemis had to mentally applaud at the alliteration. "Yes, my dear?" he answered, layering his reply with a sarcastic sweetness.

"You…you…I am not stubborn!" she finally screeched. She knew she should have calmed down by now, but her head was spinning too much to think straight. This had been a very eventful day and her brain was tired of processing.

She slammed the water off, throwing the glass door open. "Turn around," she commanded Artemis. He obliged, an eyebrow up at her strange behavior. She stepped out, grabbing a towel.

"Okay," she said, suddenly feeling calmer as the cold temperature of the bathroom draped over her still wet form.

He stayed facing away from her. He did not think he should have the image of her in a towel to add to his already interesting dreams.

"Holly, I was joking. I'm sorry if I actually made you angry. There was no malicious intent behind my words." He debated not outright apologizing, but somehow, this little elf always got the better of his pride in such situations.

"I know, Arty," she sighed. "I'm sorry too. I'm not sure why I just exploded like that."

An awkward silence hung in the air as the two glanced around, trying to decide what to do next.

"That's not true," Holly continued. "I do know why."

Artemis half turned his head in her direction, intently curious about the reasoning behind her outburst.

"I.." she hesitated. She still didn't fully understand, but she felt like Artemis should know what she was thinking and feeling. Well, part of what she was feeling. She still couldn't admit all of it to herself, let alone him.

"Holly, whatever it is, please tell me. I do not want you to feel angry or hurt. Please, tell me so I can help." He held his breath. He could not think of any logical reasons for her actions, but maybe there was something he did not know (obviously, this was the least savory of the options to the genius).

"It's exactly that," she suddenly spat out. "I don't get it. Why do you want to help me? Why are you so intent on giving me things? Why is this so important to you? I mean, I know we're friends, but you keep showering me with things and I have no idea why and nothing to give in return. I don't like this. It feels like I'm using you."

"Holly, that notion is utterly ridiculous." The words tumbled out of his mouth before he could stop them. "How could you ever think that?"

It was a rare thing when Artemis Fowl II was unable to think of anything to say. This, it seemed, was one of those moments. So instead of speaking, he turned to face the towel-clad elf.

He was shocked to find that she appeared to be crying.

He immediately dropped to the ground in front of her and swept her up into a hug, wet towel, dripping hair and all.

She sniffled into his collar for a few seconds before she stood back, clutching her towel and looked at the eyes that mirrored hers.

"No one has ever done anything like this for me. It's just hard to get used to. I'm used to having to work harder than everyone else just to prove that I am capable. It's strange not having to do anything, or repay someone. I'm not sure I like it."

Artemis met her gaze squarely.

"Holly, if it makes you feel any better, I've never wanted to give someone everything I had with no requests or strings. You're the first person whose happiness seems to be more than enough payment for anything I might do. I could lose millions and would still smile if you were happy. Like I said earlier today, unless you expressly want me to stop, do not worry about it."

His words hung over them like an omen. Truthfully, he had lost millions in an attempt to make her happy, she just didn't know it yet.

He tried not to think about his plan, though. He was trying to read her emotions.

He needn't try so hard. She suddenly took her free hand and placed it on his cheek, ignoring the single tear burning down her face. She didn't notice that she had bitten her lip or that her hand was fisted over the top of the towel.

She pulled his face closer. For the third time that day, their foreheads and noses touched. They gazed into eyes that chilled them and concentrated on their breaths. They were somehow breathing in sync, hearts both racing. Holly's hair was dripping water on Artemis' shirt. He decided he did not much care for his shirt at that moment.

With a chin that trembled, she slid her cheek until it touched his. Her ear mere millimeters from his ear, she whispered, "Thank you. I can't begin to tell you how much that means to me."

Artemis heard her, he really did. His concentration, however, was placed on keeping himself from doing something entirely stupid and game-changing.

Suddenly, an idea popped in his head. He opened his eyes, breathing calmly once again.

He reached a hand up to Holly's face, bringing her eyes back to his.

"Words are not the only way to express emotion, Holly."

Her stomach dropped. There were way too many ways that sentence could be taken and her brain began to start processing a few leaving Holly with some rather interesting ideas. Her breath sped up slightly; her heart skipped a few beats. 'What does he mean by that?' she wondered.

Without another word, he slowly dropped his hand down her face, sliding back towards her pointy ears. She took a sharp breath as he neared the second-most sensitive part of her elfin body, but let the breath out when he switched directions and ran his fingers through her still-wet hair. Ears at a safe distance from disturbingly warm fingers, the elf relaxed, letting Artemis work his hand down her hair to her shoulders. Her breath hitched when he lightened his touch as he traced down her left arm, almost lighter than a feather, but still very much a touch.

Artemis' face revealed nothing but pure concentration. He was memorizing every inch that he was touching, hoping that she would not suddenly snap out of it and beat him senseless.

When he reached her hand, he wrapped his fingers through hers and brought them up to his face. He lightly grazed the top of her hand with his fingers in a kiss.

If anyone ever asked her (not that they would), she would never admit that she actually gasped at that touch.

Artemis' closeness and personality and the past week had already driven Holly to muttering curses once in the past hour. When she felt butterflies fill her stomach, she decided that enough was enough. 'Me, an LEP officer, experiencing butterflies…what has the world come to?' she thought.

She pushed him over. He landed on his side with an "oomf." He promptly started laughing again, and this time Holly joined in. Neither of them minded that Holly had cut their possible moment short. Somehow, they both knew that there would be others.

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><p>After dinner at one of the finest restaurants in Paris, Artemis and Holly arrived at the Eiffel Tower. It was nearly midnight. The tower was supposed to close at eleven, but Holly saw people still standing around the elevator doors.<p>

"Let me guess," Holly laughed, "you paid them all to stay late so we could be alone?"

Artemis shot her a sideways glance laced with sarcasm. "Why yes, that was the plan. It is far too much of a hassle to actually see a good view with all of the tourists, even in this season."

In what seemed like a blur, they were at the top of the beautiful Tower, staring down at an even more beautiful city.

Holly stood open-mouthed for what seemed like hours to her, but only seconds to Artemis. He spent his time alternating between looking at the view of the city and the view of the woman in front of him. Yes, she was taller than usual and one would never know that her ears were normally pointed, but she still held the enchanting beauty that he could never get enough of.

Eventually, she remembered that she wasn't dreaming. This could have been caused by the increase in wind through the Tower, but the elf barely noticed herself shiver.

"Do you like the view?" she asked Artemis, not taking her eyes off the skyline.

"Yes, yes I do," was the reply. He decided not to tell her that he was not looking at the lights surrounding them when he answered the question.

"Holly," he walked up to her, lightly touching the center of her back, "I have something for you. Your next gift."

"Arty, I can't," she started. He interrupted her. "Do you remember what I said earlier?"

"Yes," she admitted. "Then what is the problem?" he asked. "I guess there isn't one," she said, grudgingly. "Exactly," he smiled.

Out of his coat pocket, Artemis withdrew a black and gold jewelry box. Holly eyed him suspiciously, never sure what he could be up to.

He held it out to her and she took the box, opening it to reveal its contents.

Inside on a velour pallet sat a bracelet made of small golden chain links, marked with four golden four-leaf-clovers, each displaying a rather large center diamond. She could tell it was fairy gold, very old; she looked up, curious to know where he got it and expecting an answer.

He read her silent request for information and supplied, "It is from the seventh century, BC. It was passed down along the less well-known family members of Frond until it ended up in a lovely little collection that was showing in Haven last year. Foaly told me to look into the show and this beauty caught my eye. It has no magic of its own design, but the gold is fairy-worked, as I'm sure you already know. I had hoped you would like it."

He smiled at her, inquiring a response.

She was silent. She just stared up at him, awestruck. 'How does he manage these things? And how long has he been holding on to this?' she wondered.

She finally broke into a smile and said, "I would put the bracelet on your wrist now, but it would not fit at the moment."

"Because it was made for a fairy," she replied.

"Yes. The story says that the Duchess who originally commissioned the bracelet had it and all of her jewelry charmed so that it would never be forced on an unworthy wearer. Supposedly, the current owner must be able to supply the piece with beauty, not just use the piece to gain beauty. Any wearer who was not worthy of the piece, so, someone who depended on the piece for beauty instead of using it to add to what was already there, would somehow lose the piece. The pieces that are given to unworthy people always end up at the show where I purchased this one. When I told the pixie who has run the show for the last three centuries about who I planned on giving the bracelet to, she assured me that the piece would be more than happy to stay with you, as I knew it would."

She managed to laugh at this. "What did you tell the poor pixie that made her say that?"

"I told her that the elf who would be receiving this bracelet was the most stunning woman I had ever seen, but one who would never try to depend on her looks for anything. I told her that you were hard working, path-making and determined to do what is right, even if it gets you into trouble. I told her that you were not only beautiful outside, but that it takes a even more beautiful soul to put up with me and my antics sometimes."

Holly was speechless. She was on the top of the friggin Eiffel Tower, on a clear, beautiful night with the person who made her head spin and who had just complimented her more than she had ever had to deal with in her life.

Her breath was shallow and she would swear that the stars around her were spinning. That is, what she could see of the stars as Artemis was suddenly much closer.

"Holly," he breathed, "I have a question for you."

"What is that?" she breathed, just as quietly.

"I know you said that my elf kissing days are over, but does that still apply when you're in human shape?"

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><p><strong>Thank you for reading! You know the drill, reviews are always welcome. <strong>


	9. An Interlude

**A/N:**

**Okay, here's a teeny bite for everyone. I hope it makes sense. It was really hard to write because I haven't done much with these characters before.**

**Also, I don't own anything.**

**Keep the reviews coming. I swear I read every single one.**

**An Interlude**

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><p>Holly and Artemis are asleep in a hotel in Paris. Meanwhile, belowground…<p>

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><p>The Commander was not happy. Neither, it seemed, was the Council.<p>

They had been on board for Artemis' idea two years ago; Foaly had it on record. However, they now were in uproar. It seemed that they had been betting on the little detail that Artemis would die in a few decades and allow them to do whatever they wanted with what he had built.

Foaly was just fine letting them have their little dream. He had suspected that Fowl would have something up his sleeve; he just had not mentioned it to any of them.

No1, it seemed, did not have that foresight.

Now the Commander had called Foaly, No1, Qwan, and even Mulch and Caballine into the small meeting room for a "little chat."

All sound surveillance was turned off; Foaly did not want any of this conversation being used to dock his pay. Visuals were still up, but all of the cameras pointed down. Foaly hoped he wouldn't need to fake any of the conversation.

Mulch and No1 sat together on the small couch in a corner. Mulch had already eaten every snack in the room and had taken two trips to the office kitchen for additional comfort food. Foaly paced nervously while Caballine and Qwan observed the Commander with level eyes.

They sat in silence (except for Mulch's chewing noises) for a few minutes, no one wanting to break the ice.

Caballine was the first to crack. "Why are we here, Commander Kelp?"

The Commander's eyes flashed in her direction. Truthfully, she wasn't asking the question out of rhetorical purposes; she really did not know why she was in the Plaza at all. She was supposed to be enjoying a day off from work, but her husband had told her to come in for a meeting.

Trouble Kelp took a deep breath. He was not happy with any of this. He did not like this human and had only approved of his newest charade to appease the Council. When No1 informed him in passing (with Councilmen Lupe within hearing) that there were steps in Fowl's plan that he had not shared with them, he was livid.

"You are here," Trouble began, "because you are all accessories in an ongoing crime."

"Hey now!" Mulch interrupted, "I didn't do nuffin." No1 wrinkled his nose at the chicken pieces sticking out of the dwarf's large front molars.

Trouble ignored the comment.

"Omitting pertinent information is considered aiding and abetting in the eyes of the law. You have all been keeping important details about this Fowl boy from the Council. Anyone feel like saving their rear ends? Now's the time to start singing, before the Council pulls the entire project."

"Well, Sir," Foaly began.

"What, centaur?" the increasingly annoyed elf responded. Caballine threw him a dirty look at the use of her species as an insult.

"Sir, I'm sorry to tell you, but there is no going back or stopping any part of the project at this point. Everything is set up. Even if we could get topside to remove our equipment, all Fowl has to do is ban us from his estate grounds until the full moon. He has everything he needs; you and the Council approved it."

"I am very well aware of what was approved," Trouble said through gritted teeth, "and that human is not approved to die off schedule."

"Ah. This is where I come in." Qwan stepped towards the Commander, no trace of intimidation on his features. "You see, Commander, we have ourselves an anomaly. Fowl isn't actually all human. He never was. It really makes quite a bit of sense when all the facts are lined up correctly."

Caballine looked in disbelief first at the warlock and then her husband; Mulch stopped eating; Foaly and No1 looked at their feet, they had both known this information for quite some time; Trouble slowly cocked his head at the person in front of him who seemed to be speaking blasphemy.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU…" Trouble began, getting to his feet in such a hurry that he knocked his chair over and he tried to toss the table away from him. Of course, no one in the room noticed the moving furniture. They noticed that their Commander had passed the moment he had became properly vertical. He was now under the table he had tried to throw.

"D'arvit," whispered Foaly.

"I agree," said Caballine. "This is going to be big."

"No, not that," Foaly said, shaking his head. "I just lost a good amount of gold in bets. I thought Trouble would make it longer as Commander before he actually passed out in a meeting."

No1 nodded silently, Caballine shook her head at her admittedly unrealistic husband.

"So," Mulch began, cleaning his teeth with a chicken bone, "I'm with him." He gestured to the elf on the floor. "What the hell _are_ you talking about?"

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><p><strong>Duh duh duh.<strong>

**Holly and Artemis will come back soon, I promise.**

**I hope no one was too OCC.**

**Love, Peace and Dolphins - BQB**


	10. Come and Rest Your Bones with Me

**A/N: Hey guys, I'm back.**

**My apologies for the long wait for updates. **

**Writers'. Block. Sucks.**

**Alsoooo. Ru-Dragon likes this story. *holycrapholycrap* I love her writings. If you don't know who she is and/or haven't read her works, go get familiarized with it. Like now. It rocks. **

**This chapter is dedicated to her. I hope it meets your standards!**

Alsoooooo. Italics = flashback.

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><p><strong>Come and Rest Your Bones with Me.<strong>

Artemis, thankfully, informed Butler that they would be leaving later then originally planned because they were going to sleep in the next morning, stating the long hours of being pelted by snowballs had likely overexerted him. Butler was tempted to reply that his excuse was useless because Artemis could run 5 miles without a single break now. But, aware of the situation, Butler just smiled and nodded.

Grumbling about the midmorning light flooding the bed, Artemis began to roll away when he remembered that if he was not careful, he could smash a certain elf who was somewhere in this bed with him.

His pulse sped and his lungs emptied suddenly as he realized that his arm was around that elf, and she seemed to be unhappy about the appearance of this bright light as well.

Instead of waking up, she opted to just turn into the person she was so very close to. Artemis tried not to laugh as she snuggled into his chest. She was going to kill him later when he made fun of her for being so…well, he knew she would despise, cute.

He smiled, recalling the events of the past evening, grateful and amazed that they hadn't been a dream.

_Artemis had met her gaze squarely. A small smile played on his lips. He honestly had not meant to ask that question, but once he had, there had been nothing he wanted more than to hear the answer._

_"Arty…I…" she stammered, eyes pleading for something, he did not know what. She didn't either._

_"Yes?" he replied, stepping closer to her. He was close enough to smell her perfume, even with the wind so strong._

_She looked up at him, unsure. When she noticed that he had the same wanting expression on his face, she suddenly smiled._

_"Artemis Fowl does not usually ask questions he doesn't already have the answers to."_

_He had outright grinned at that, not the vampiric grin that most people saw. No, this was a look of excitement and mischief._

_"In that case…" he said, grin getting bigger._

_He took a step towards her, taking her lightly by the hands and pulling her to face him. He then lifted his right hand to her chin, slowly running his fingers from her jaw to her ear and back. When he reached her jaw again, dropped his mismatched fingers under her jaw and lifted her face closer._

_Holly blamed the human anatomy. There was no way her stomach could drop so far down when she looked like an elf. And more importantly, there was no way her heart could have stopped beating. 'Right?' she asked herself, a small gasp leaving her lips._

_"…I'll take that as a yes."_

_His lips gently met hers. A handful of miniscule sparks passed between them and they both smiled and paused._

_"What have we here?" he whispered when they paused for air._

_Holly began to chuckle, watching the tiny sparks still play around his lips and, shockingly, both of his eyes._

_His kisses were surprisingly good. Holly wrapped her arms around his shoulders, hands relaxing in his hair. His left hand snaked around her waist, pulling her as close as he could manage._

_Holly was literally seeing stars. Her magic sensed what she was feeling and decided to play a show of sparks and light behind her closed eyes._

_"Hmm. My magic likes it when you do that," Holly said, smiling._

_"So it seems," Artemis said, running his fingers along her cheek bone. "But the question is, do you?"_

_She felt him smile against her cheek, knowing the answer was redundant._

_"If I didn't like it, you'd be in a heap and Butler would be wondering why your face was bloody."_

_They both smiled at this, lips meeting once again._

Artemis decided that having to face the morning sunlight to lie next to Holly was not too bad of a tradeoff.

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><p>When Holly finally awoke, she did so very unwillingly. Keeping her eyes closed, she burrowed further into the blankets. She was warm, comfortable and had been in the middle of quite a wonderful dream…<p>

'My pillow is moving,' she realized, opening her eyes.

Artemis was looking at her, smile on his face. He hated to wake her, but they really did need to head to the air port. He did not want to be too late getting back to Ireland.

He leaned in to kiss her head, both of them still happily surprised at how easy it was for them to show and receive affection. They had spent the rest of the night talking and playing card games, shyly touching, kissing and smiling at each other. It was a short time before they were interacting as if this was perfectly normal.

"My dear, it is time to wake up. I am deeply sorry to have interrupted your slumber." A coy twinkle danced in his eyes, making Holly grumble.

"No. Not allowed. No talking like some old romantic maniac like Orion ever again, got it?" She tried to look stern, really she did. However, her eyes were still half closed, her hair was rumpled and Artemis was clearly making fun of her. In spite of herself, she smiled.

He sighed, leaning in slightly.

"Holly, I have to ask your opinion on something."

Her eyebrows cocked. "Arty, it is who-knows-what-time in the morning and I'm barely awake. What in Frond's name do you need to know?"

"Well, my grumpy elf," he began, almost purring, as he put his lips up to her ear, "I was simply going to ask if you think it is acceptable to want to kiss you right now, because that's all I've been thinking about for the past two hours."

'Drat,' she thought, 'it wasn't just the stupid Mud Woman shape. My stomach really can drop that far and my heart really can stop.'

He met her eyes, anticipation dancing in his eyes.

"That is acceptable, yes." She tried not to stumble as he made his way closer to her lips.

'Well, this is going to be interesting,' Butler thought, backing out of the room as silently as he had entered. 'I'll just yell that breakfast is ready in a few minutes. No need to interrupt just yet.'

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><p><strong>I know it's super short, but I had a really hard time deciding exactly what to do and how to do it.<strong>

**Oh yeah, I don't own anything. :)**

**Next update will be sooner.**

**I promise I will deal with the whole elf-mudman thing and the whole darn situation. You just gotta wait for it. (If you haven't caught on by now, I'm a massive shipper. If you somehow thought this would end any other way, well….nope.)**

**Thank you sooooo much to everyone who reviews! I love you guys! It's the reason I finally sat down and made myself drudge out this chapter.**

**Loves,**

**BlueQueenBee**


	11. Five Golden Rings

A/N: This is for HeadlessHoncho. He has put some pretty damn impressive effort into getting me to put this up.

To my reviewers- You guys are freaking awesome. Thank you so much for the support! Aaah! I'm so glad y'all like the story! *bounces around like crazy*

…no, I don't smile like a moron and squeal every single time I get a review…you can't prove that. Nope.

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><p><strong>Five Golden Rings<strong>

Breakfast, packing and getting to the Lear all went in a blur for Holly. Her head was swimming; a strange happy feeling struck her every time Artemis glanced at her.

She was surprised by his behavior. She had expected him to blush and probably stay at a distance from her; this was not exactly something Artemis had experience with and she expected him to be slightly less affectionate towards her at least until that "new" feeling faded.

It seemed, however, that she had forgotten that Artemis didn't do anything part way, nor was he likely to suddenly lose his day-to-day confidence. She suspected that he had spent some of the morning deciding exactly was acceptable behavior.

If he was the least bit nervous about openly showing affection towards Holly, he didn't show it. He sat next to her at breakfast, even held her hand as they walked to the limo. When they boarded the jet, he seemed to make a point to be just a step behind her with his hand kept to her lower back, lest she should fall.

Once the plane had begun its flight, Artemis unbuckled his straps and walked up to the cockpit to speak with Butler. Holly stood up, stretching and shrinking back to her small elfin size. She went to sit on one of larger lounges, glancing out the window. As the clouds rushed by, she sighed.

'What am I getting into?' she thought. 'It really isn't a good idea.'

'Why isn't it a good idea?' part of her wondered.

'Well,' thought the logical part of her brain, 'this is probably against more rules than I can count to. I know it won't be kept quiet, if Foaly finds out, and he will, everyone will know.'

'So?' asked the apparent devil's advocate in her head, 'since when do you care about rules? You still haven't read anything in the LEP RuleBooke except how to file those stupid forms for Foaly. And he sent that in a separate email. You still haven't actually opened the real one."

'Well, that is true…' conceded the logical voice.

'And besides,' she argued to herself, 'even fairies are forgiving if love is involved.'

She gasped quietly. "Oh goodness," she breathed when she realized her newest point.

'Oh gods, I really do love him. I had been hoping it was a phase…but I don't think it is…'

She stood up, crossed the aisle to the nearest metal support beam she could reach and promptly slammed her head into it.

She continued to do so until she heard footsteps stopping behind her. She finally stopped, resting her head on the beam.

"Feel better?" came Artemis' sarcastic inquiry.

"Yes, loads better," was the scathing reply.

Artemis cocked an eyebrow, familiar with this mood. She was not angry, but she was likely to snap at the next thing that moved.

He let out a deep breath and simply said, "I will be on the couch if or when you choose to join me."

He turned and sat down, eyes leveling on the flustered elf in front of him. He wanted to know what exactly had set her off, but he also knew that he would not be getting any useful information out of her until she decided to share. He was not surprised if she was overwhelmed. Admittedly, he was too.

He had not meant to kiss her that night. He had acted spontaneously, something that seemed to be happening more lately around Holly. He really did not mind however, he had truthfully been worried about working up the nerve to actually kiss her. He had admitted his feelings about her long ago, but he was not certain how she would respond to a physical verification of these feelings. He was quite pleased that she did not outright punch him.

He wondered if she was having second thoughts. He would not blame her for reconsidering. They had made no official plans or agreements as to how the next week or so would go, but when he had kissed her cheek or touched her arm, she did not pull away or made to stop him.

He needed to reassure her.

And right then, she needed reassuring.

She turned around and looked at him, a look of exasperation in her eyes.

'Why is he always so damn calm?' she thought, highly considering getting angry just to get a ruse out of him.

'I guess that's not fair,' she reasoned. 'He always looks calm when he isn't sure of something. He has no idea why I'm standing here banging my head. He's waiting on me to decide what I'm going to do next. Drat. Why is he also so d'arviting considerate, too?'

She glared at him and walked over, stopping right in front of his feet.

He looked at her with a questioning gaze. She let out a huff of air.

"Why are you so calm?" she asked, shaking her head.

"Holly, if I got upset or worried every time you acted violently without giving a reason for your actions, I would have grey hair."

She snorted, her brain deciding it was too tired to keep arguing right now.

She sat down by him, curling her feet on the seat in front of her. He leaned over, draping his arm around her small frame.

"I know you're worried and probably scared, but I don't expect you to admit to that part." He held up his hand to silence her interruption. "Please listen, Holly. I mean it when I say I want to make you happy. Nothing else seems to matter to me anymore, aside from my family. For the next few days, can we just enjoy being together? We will talk about everything before you leave, but you are not going to have any problems for the next week, I can assure you of that. Unless you specifically wish to stop, of course." He paused, not wanting to say the next phrase, but knowing it was necessary. "If you wish to stop right now and never again speak of the past twelve hours, I shall do so willingly."

He waited for her to speak. She sat for a few moments, fidgeting in place.

In a small voice, she finally asked, "Is that what you think I want, Artemis?"

"Holly, I could never begin to understand the finer workings of your mind. This is not a situation that I have ever known you to be in, thus, I have no previous data from which to glean possible answers to my questions. I would also not be so brash as to assume that you want this sort of situation in the first place."

She looked up at him, a look of awe dancing over her features. Suddenly, she started to laugh.

"A simple 'no' would have worked," she said, then "thank you for not assuming, and for giving me room to change my mind."

"You are not some simple experiment. You are certainly not simple, and if you are an experiment, it is the most volatile, wonderful, amazing one I have ever tried to execute. I consider you to be a wonderful adventure, one I am not keen on ending anytime soon."

She smiled, rolling her eyes at him.

"So what do you want, Holly? Right now, in this moment? What can I do to make you happy?"

She grinned up at those eyes that shone so clear, once again noting the presence of a look she could swear was reserved for her alone.

"Foaly is going to have a field-day with this," she whispered; then she reached up and kissed him.

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><p>They arrived at the manor mid-afternoon. Juliet gave Butler a questioning look when she noticed Artemis' close proximity to Holly and the fact that Holly hadn't told him off for it. They were bickering about the pros and cons about Foaly's newest wing design, but their hearts weren't in it. Juliet noted the smile on Holly's face and the ease in Artemis' walk. She would bug her big brother about this later.<p>

The evening passed fairly quickly. Myles and Beckett were thrilled that Holly had to be shaped like a human until all of the decorators for the Ball were gone; they were hoping it meant that they could actually beat the normally smaller woman at hide-and-seek.

Artemis sat at the desk in his study as they played. He could hear footsteps racing up and down the halls, occasionally a shout from one of the twins would echo down the stone halls. Those were generally followed with Holly's bright laughter as she somehow managed to continually best them, even in a larger form. Eventually, the boys got tired of losing so badly and they went to bother their parents.

Holly sat and read a book while Artemis worked, each enjoying the quiet companionship.

After a late dinner, Angeline declared that they would all watch a movie in the manor's plush theater. Butler and Juliet supplied popcorn and drinks as they all settled into over-stuffed couches to watch the children's movie Beckett picked out. Myles was unhappy that his movie was not being shown, but he lost the rock-paper-scissors game and everyone saw it.

Holly and Artemis shared a couch. Holly was nervous about being in a room with Artemis' family and likely cuddling with the eldest son, but Angeline just winked at her as Artemis put his arm around her shoulder. She silently shook her head at everyone's reactions to their subtle but none-the-less open displays of affection over the evening. No one seemed the least bit surprised or concerned to see the new couple holding hands or the kiss he put on her cheek at dinner.

After the movie, the twins were put to bed and their parents retired to the master suite. Holly and Artemis ended up walking through the halls at what Holly thought was a random pattern until he stopped and smiled at her.

"I would like to show you the next gift."

"Artemis, really…"

"Holly, we have been over this," he said sternly. She looked up at him sheepishly. She knew she should want to smack him, but he looked so excited. She decided to see what it was and then decide if he needed a good whack to the head for continuing with this crazy idea.

"Oh, alright."

He entered the code on the door and stepped in, holding the door for Holly.

She stepped in and immediately received a rush of floral scents hitting her nose and a heavy humid feeling swamping the air around her. He reached around her and turned on the lights as she gasped in wonder.

She was standing in what could have been a small gymnasium, except no gymnasium has rows and rows of flowers and plants in beautiful patterned plots with artificial light and watering tracks attached to timers designed to give each bloom the perfect amount of light and water.

She couldn't actually see the corners, even though she knew they must exist. Flowers were on every wall, vines creeping in spaces between displays. She began to walk, transfixed on the blooming life around her. A small winding pond took up most of the floor with small bridges crossing in strategic places. She could hear a water fall somewhere, but she couldn't see it. She began to take note of individual blooms, seeing a little of everything. Orchids, roses, lilies, daisies and pansies of all breeds exploded their bright colors against a backdrop of every shade of green imaginable.

When she remembered that she wasn't alone, she looked back at Artemis and was surprised to see how far from the door her feet had taken her. She had gotten lost in all the beauty around her.

When he saw that she had paused, he came over, smiling.

"It's been a pet project of my mother and I. There are over 300 species of plant and flower in here along with quite a few mosses and wild weeds. We have managed to repopulate several of the rarest species on the planet. Myles has been assisting by attempting to manipulate the genomes of those that cannot repopulate easily or at all. It has been a success thus far. Do you like it?"

She smiled at him.

"It's amazing. I…this is wonderful! So much life! I can feel it. These plants are very happy. They love it here. You take great care of them."

She walked up to a bright purple lily, touching the petals lightly. "It is beautiful," she whispered.

"I'm glad you like it. You are welcome to spend as much time here as you wish. I'll give you the code the door later."

She turned to him, awed at the work that must have gone into these creatures. She was impressed. He had said that many of the plants were rare, and Myles was playing with the science side of it all, but this idea was created for beauty and life.

She walked over to him, beaming. She hugged him tight; he had to struggle to get breath for a moment. Thankfully she lightened her grip only to drown him in kisses. When they came up for air, he said playfully, "If I had known that I would get that reaction, I would have shown you this room ages ago."

She stuck her tongue out at him as he laughed. As she looked around the wonder-filled room, she took a moment to relax and truly enjoy the moment. Yes, it was going to be a rocky next few weeks, maybe next few months or even years; somehow, she couldn't make herself care.

She was happy, content and being spoiled rotten whether she liked it or not. She decided that she had best get on with liking it; she was only on vacation for another week. Artemis was right, she should enjoy this ride while she was on it.

A long while later, after Artemis had walked her through the different segments of the greenhouse room, they ended up in his bedroom talking.

"I should go to the other room," Holly said regretfully when they decided it was time for bed.

"You don't have to," Artemis quickly replied. She grinned at his response.

"And why is that?" she asked playfully. "Is there a reason I shouldn't go?"

"Well, yes," he said. She laughed at how quickly he had stopped her from leaving.

"And what would that be?"

"I want to spend as much time as I can with you, even while we sleep. Besides, I quite like cuddling," he added slyly.

She started laughing at his using such a non-scientific word, but she relented.

"Oh alright, but I'm only doing this because your bed is far more comfortable than the other one."

He laughed at this, walking into his bathroom to change into his nightclothes. "If that makes you feel better, you can go ahead and tell yourself that."

He shut the door as she fought for a snappy response and utterly failed at finding one.

She sighed and crawled into the giant bed. She could sleep in the clothes she was wearing; she was too tired to find her actual pajamas.

When Artemis emerged from the bathroom, he found Holly already asleep. He smiled when he got into bed and she curled easily into his arms.

"Good night, my love," he whispered, kissing her forehead.

'Oh Frond,' she thought as she sleepily heard his words and felt her pulse jump, 'I don't think this is a phase.'

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><p><strong>That's all for now, folks. Also, it was late when I finished this. If you find anything wrong, please let me know and I'll fix it ASAP. :)<strong>

**Thanks again for reading, and please review. I love reading them!**

**BQB**


	12. Are You Sure?

A/N:

This is a shorter chapter. (Not too short, Ru, I promise)

Touchy-feely moments and more info/teasers about Artemis' little plan.

Answers to questions from reviews…

(PrincessMaria) There are 12 days, but if I only updated for each of those days' worth of stories, you guys would hate me so much for updating half as often, and my chapters would be at least twice as long…

(SqueakyDolphin6) Holly isn't wearing her iris cam. She isn't on an actual mission. Oh, and that would kill her poor eyes. And Foaly would see her shower / use the bathroom / her reflection / who-knows-what-else…Ew. :)

(FF8Ceberus) The greenroom didn't mean anything to do with the actual "12 days" gifts. Not all of them will.

If you guys have anymore comments/questions/suggestions, please let me know!

I own Nada.

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><p><strong>Are you sure?<strong>

Artemis Fowl Senior was very happy that his son had finally realized and acted on his obvious feelings for Holly. Everyone in the manor knew about it and he, Butler and Juliet had placed bets on whether or not he got his face broken when she found out. Juliet, it seemed, had won; not only was Artemis' face still intact (which, Butler had argued, could have been fixed by fairy healing if Holly decided to feel sorry for him), but Holly was apparently okay with the whole thing. Butler had bet that Holly would deck him and not admit her feelings, thus probably acting hostile. Fowl Senior had simply bet that Artemis wouldn't tell her over the holiday. Juliet had danced off after they compared what they realized had taken place. She had bet on the more romantic result, of course.

At the moment, the elder Artemis was standing in front of his son's bedroom door. He knew Artemis Junior would be awake; they'd planned a meeting with Foaly to take place in 15 minutes.

Artemis looked at the door, closed his eyes in a final burst of determination, and knocked quietly.

Padded footsteps came from within the room before the door opened, admitting a fully dressed Artemis Junior with a look of curiosity.

"What can I help you with, Father? I have a meeting soon." Artemis was dreading whatever his father wanted to talk about. He had been hoping that neither of his parents would be surprised enough by how he and Holly had been acting to just ignore it.

He discovered that his hope was unfounded when his father said, "Arty, I need to talk to you. I have a few questions I want to ask before you go to your meeting."

"Yes, sir," Arty replied, stepping over the threshold to his room, gently closing the door behind him. "Would you like to go to your office?"

"No, son, we can stand here and talk; this won't take long."

This made his son's eyebrow rise slightly; Artemis II rarely spoke to anyone about serious matters outside of his office.

"Artemis, are you sure about all of this?"

The sound of the question rang lightly through the stone hall, the son met his father's gaze seriously.

"I am more sure of this than anything I have ever known. It is good for The People, it is good for humans and this is the absolute best way to do it. I assure you, Father, I am sure of this."

The older man looked into the mix-matched eyes of his first born.

"Arty, that isn't why you are doing this, not really. You are doing this for her. Is *she* worth all of this? I agree that it is a wonderful idea, but I'm afraid that you are doing it for the wrong reasons. You can do this later in your life, The People won't mind a few decades' of waiting."

Artemis paused before answering. "Yes, they could. But waiting would mean that I have to continue hardly ever seeing her, never really getting a shot at having a life with her. I can't pass up that chance. I love her, and I will do whatever it takes to have the opportunity to be with her."

"But what if it doesn't work out? What will you do?"

"Well, Father, we would rearrange a few things so that she would not have to be around me if she no longer wished to be. That is hardly a factor worth considering."

"You, my boy," Artemis Senior said, shaking his head, "are in for a long road if you want that life. Especially with her; she's a feisty one."

Conversation seemingly over, Artemis Senior began to turn away from his son. He paused, turning to face the boy once again.

"I wish you the absolute best, I hope you know that. Your mother and I are more proud than we can say about what you are accomplishing here. We just hope that it's worth what you may miss out on, the sacrifices you have had to make and will continue to make."

Artemis Junior smiled.

"Thank you, Father. It means a lot to me that you and Mother approve and have been so supportive of all the changes. I am not the only one who has sacrificed for this project."

"You know your mother and I are more than happy to help your friends. We had been considering a change of scenery for quite some time. I am glad we decided not to tell the boys, though. They can't hide anything from Holly. It's rather amusing, actually."

Artemis the Second cringed at that thought. Yes, not telling the boys had been a very good move.

"Is that all, Father?"

They had been talking for a few minutes and Artemis Senior knew his son probably needed to do a few more things before their meeting began.

"Yes, Arty, I will see you in the meeting room in a few minutes." Artemis Senior hesitated a moment and then reached out to hug his son. While the family had not been nearly as cold for the past several years as they were when Artemis was a child, the son was still not used to open shows of affection from his father.

Artemis Junior returned the hug with force, grateful that his father approved. He knew that his parents would agree to the project because of its amazing aid to The People and Humankind, but he had never admitted his real motivation for the idea.

As the two men separated, they smiled warmly at one another, both glad to have shared this quiet moment.

Artemis Senior turned and went to prepare for the meeting while Artemis Junior did the same.

As Artemis Junior was quietly gathering his computer and notes to take to the meeting, he watched the sleeping redhead in his bed. She had not been happy to let him leave the bed earlier that morning; she seemed to think that he was her personal pillow.

He had stayed in the bed a few minutes longer, allowing her to drift back into dreams. When he thought he could manage to get out of bed without waking the woman, he slowly made his way towards the side of the bed, inching away from her. It took no small amount of self-determination to keep him out of that bed, but he knew this meeting was important. He was to learn how the final steps were coming along and the next few days were vital. If anything went wrong at this stage, he would never forgive himself.

Before he left his room, he walked over to the quiet elf. He gazed at her soft silhouette in the duvet and the small smile that played on her lips as she dreamed. He bent down and lightly kissed her cheek, grinning at the small disapproving sound she made when he stood back up.

As he sat in the meeting room, Foaly and No1 on the projected screen, Butler and his father on either side of him, he swallowed his nerves and allowed himself a smile as he replayed the memory of her small figure curled up against his as she slept.

'Yes,' he thought, 'I'm sure of this.'

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><p><strong>Thank you, my loves.<strong>

**Please Read and Review. I do love them. They cheer me up if I'm down.**

**Peace, love and dolphins,**

**BlueQueenBee**


	13. The Good, the Sexy and the Stupid

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**Alrighty people, here's the next chapter.**

**Please vote on how you would rather the format of the next chapters be presented.**

**Also, I don't own anything...If I did, I'd be driving a much sexier car.**

**The Good, the Sexy and the Stupid**

Holly woke up annoyed and alone. She vaguely remembered Artemis telling her that he had a meeting that morning, but it did not make waking up in an empty bed any more enjoyable.

"What stupid meeting is so important?" she grumbled to herself.

She knew she was just being difficult because it was early and she wanted to sleep more, but now she was awake and her curiosity was a little louder in her head than the call of sleep.

She untangled herself from the sheets and got out of bed, not caring that her clothes were rumpled. She walked over to the desk on the far side of the bedroom, noticing that Artemis' laptop was gone.

'Hmm…I wonder if they're still in that meeting…?'

She promptly turned and walked out the door, closing it quietly behind her. She made her way towards the board room, where she suspected Artemis would be.

'I'm a Recon officer;' she reasoned. 'time to do some Recon.'

The door to the board room was closed, but Holly could hear voices. It sounded like Artemis and his father and Butler were present from the conversation, and she could hear Foaly coming in through a speaker.

'Maybe they're talking about Arty's little "plan,"' she hoped, listening closer.

That's when she clearly heard Artemis say, "Holly, you are above listening at doors like my brothers. You are welcome to join us."

She glared at the door. 'D'arvit, how does he do that?'

She let herself inside, quickly noticing that she had been right about who was in attendance. Artemis was seated at the head of the table, his father on one side, Butler on the other. Foaly's fuzzy face was on the large plasma TV at the other end of the room. No1 was with him.

She considered looking slightly ashamed for sneaking around, but she dismissed the idea with a mental shrug. It was her job, after all.

No one was surprised to see her, from the enthusiastic but not fazed looks on the faces of the people around her and on the screen.

"How did you know I was coming?" she asked Artemis.

In response, he flicked his finger at the nearest corner, indicating the camera placed there. She couldn't resist rolling her eyes at her own mistake. She should have remembered that he would be watching the screens during the meeting.

"What about us?" squeaked No1.

"Yeah, nothing to say to your friends belowground?" snipped Foaly.

"Oh shove off, it's early," came her grumbled response, climbing into a chair next to Butler.

"Yeah, you're just a ray of sunshine in the morning. Why exactly are you awake right now?" inquired the centaur.

"Shut up, Foaly. What are you guys talking about?" snapped the little elf.

"What costume you should wear to the ball," answered Artemis, truthfully. When he saw her walking out of the bedroom, he promptly ended the meeting and brought up a subject that he knew would break her attention from what they had really been talking about.

His technique worked, as he knew it would. Holly was rendered speechless by the breaching of a topic that she had completely forgotten about and that it was being discussed by these males.

No1 excitedly chirped in, "We like a black widow!"

Foaly nodded, a look that said he was debating how best to get blackmail material out of this. Butler's face was straight but Artemis and his father had very amused expressions.

Holly, finally over her apparent speechlessness, glared at No1, "Since when did my attire to a party attended by pompous, rich Mud Men become a group discussion?"

The gleeful look on No1's face dropped. Foaly suddenly became very interested in the carrot he had been using to point at screens for No1. Butler smirked as Artemis Senior glanced at his son.

"Now Holly, that is not fair. They were just assisting with design issues." Artemis spoke calmly, but his eyes looked amused. Holly still wasn't used to this look on his face, but she knew it well enough to know that he only made it when he was trying not to laugh. He seemed to not wish to break his cool in front of his father (and possibly Foaly), but he was unable to completely hide that he thought the entire scene was funny.

"…what design?" Holly asked slowly.

"This one," Foaly quipped, pulling up a picture on the screen for everyone to see.

Holly gasped.

The costume was certainly a black widow, but it was wonderfully altered to fit the human form.

The base of the costume was a black body suit, skin tight, made of a matte material with a sparkling silver web design covering the fabric. It had long, slim sleeves that ended at a point in the middle of the back of the hands. A large, flowy black skirt littered with silver webs began at the middle of the hips, cascading in a single piece of fabric down to the floor leaving a small, foot-long train with a single, full length slit starting at the top of the left thigh showing the black body suit underneath. A black corset wrapped from the mid-bust to the top of the skirt, giving the waist an elongated appearance. The tell-tale red hourglass shape famous to the widow was present on the corset, the middle of the hourglass hitting exactly in the smallest part of the waist, giving even more of an illusion to the design. The back had an almost cape-like piece of black tulle that continued the silver web design, only much larger than that of the sleeves or skirt. This ended just below the knees and was edged in sparkling silver. A necklace in the shape of a real black widow (complete with red triangles on the belly) on a silver chain was along the neckline, ending just above the beginning of the corset. Tall black boots finished off the costume. A few different mask designs accompanied the costume's position on the large screen. Each featured some sort of spider design, one with four legs branching out from around the eyes, one was taller and went above the hairline, another would cover the wearer's entire face.

Holly really wanted to say something snappy, but instead she started laughing. Everyone in the room except Artemis seemed very surprised by this reaction; she guessed that they thought she would be angry. She had considered this, but the costume was just too perfect. She knew he had called her "black widow pretty" in the past, and she'd agreed with the assessment. She, like a black widow, had a fearsome bite but would probably not bother you unless provoked.

She loved it. She couldn't help it. It was clever, a little naughty and (though she hated to admit it) sexy.

She looked at Artemis, still laughing. "Very nice, Arty. You're a sarcastic prick, but I like it."

He actually let out a chuckle at this. Everyone else just looked confused.

At this moment, Foaly's phone went off and he excused himself to answer it while No1 continued to ramble about how much he liked the costume idea.

When Foaly returned, he informed the group that he and No1 had to go attend some boring meeting with the Commander about a previous op.

Saying their goodbyes to Holly, they ended the connection, No1 trying to keep a fallen look off his face.

"Holly," Artemis said, "please stop trying to wander into meetings. You will learn everything soon enough." He looked annoyingly pleased, in Holly's opinion.

"Oh fine," she conceded, both of them knowing she would do nothing of the kind. He knew he was lucky that she had been distracted for the past few days. Now that she had been reminded about this big plan of his, she would not relent until she knew what was actually going on.

"Why don't we go get some breakfast? The twins and Angeline will be up soon," said Artemis Senior.

"Good idea, sir," supplied Butler. Both of the older men wanted out of the line of fire in case the feisty little elf decided that she wanted the information sooner rather than later.

While Butler and Artemis Senior went downstairs, Artemis and Holly returned to his bedroom. Holly was only slightly surprised to learn that Juliet had moved her things into the boy's quarters. She sighed, amused at the gesture in spite of herself. It was so strange that everyone in the Manor was so accepting of this new change in their relationship.

"This isn't going to get me into trouble is it? Whatever your master plan is? I'm serious, Arty." She stopped by his desk as he put his computer down.

"Holly, I do not wish to tell you the details until everything is ready, but I can promise that you will get in no trouble with the LEP." He sighed, debating on his next sentence.

"The LEP is actually assisting." He said quickly.

This, of course, was possibly the only outright stupid thing Artemis had ever said in his whole life.

**He is so screwed.**

**Next chapter: Holly gets pissed. :)**

**Haha, Ru, I told you I wasn't going to just let it drop. :)**

**As always, please read and review and offer any suggestions!**

**Peace, love and dolphins,**

**BlueQueenBee**


	14. Misunderstandings

**This is for Ru (Holy crap, quick update…and you'll love it. Now, back off my slow updates! Hahahahhaaaaa.) She legit fills my poor inbox with stuff asking for the next chapter. I'm workin' on 'em, I promise, babe!**

…**.And HeadlessHoncho…I know you have homework. I'm a terrible person. Oh, and they make you turn them in when they get used, something about clients getting more than they paid for…I use wet drink napkins. (See his last review for clarification. :P Also, I'm a tad sadistic…)**

…**and to my reviewers! Aaaaahhhhh. So awesome! Thank you guys sooo much!**

**Gonna try a POV for this scene…We'll see how it works out. Please let me know how it works/if you like it.**

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><p><strong>Artemis POV<strong>

'Oh my. That was incredibly stupid. I do not do stupid things. So why did I do that?'

Holly paused for a long moment, then took a deep breath. And kept breathing…

'Uh, oh,' I thought, watching her face become a shade of red that the late Commander would probably promote her for managing.

She began to exhale, her face somehow becoming even a deeper red as the air escaped through her gritted teeth.

This was not good, I knew that much. But I had never seen her actually need a deep breath before yelling at someone. Usually she had plenty of air to effectively scare whoever it was that had provoked her.

As her lungs finally emptied, I got worried. She was not glaring or opening her mouth to scream. Her face was calm, too calm. As her fist collided with my stomach, I knew she was being merciful, which is when I knew all hell was about to break loose. If she wanted me unconscious, she would have knocked me off my feet and smacked a temple or other pressure point. No, she slugged me in the gut, which meant she wanted me to be hurting, but still awake and mentally functional.

'I am so screwed,' I thought, as I hit the floor with a smack. She'd hit me hard enough to knock me completely off balance. As she walked around to my head, I attempted to push myself up to a sitting position, but was swiftly back on the ground as Holly kicked my arm out from under me.

She stepped on my stomach, right where she had just punched, making me lurch in pain. Her foot connected squarely with my chest, forcing me back down yet again. She took a step and crouched on my chest, even her small amount of weight pushing down was hurting. She bent close to my face, a mistake on her part. I was on the ground with an elf on my chest and a searing pain in my middle, true, but she neglected to recall that I had been practicing some basic wrestling moves with Juliet for two years. Butler had prohibited his sister to teach me anything that he considered showy or a waste of energy, so everything I learned was simple, yet quite effective.

It took me a full second to convert the amount and angle of momentum required to move the smaller Holly from the much larger and muscled Juliet I was used to training with. The quiet thought Holly was caught up in provided that extra second.

I threw my arms up and in one quick motion, pinned her down, throwing my entire body into holding her limbs down.

"LET GO OF ME YOU MANIPULATIVE SNEAKY D'ARVITTING MUD BOY!"

Apparently she had gotten her voice back.

I struggled to keep her in one place while she kept screeching (yes, screeching) curses in several languages.

"HOLLY CALM THE HELL DOWN!" I finally shouted back.

"No! What are you up to, you sneak, that you wanted to keep a secret so badly that you managed to threaten my entire office into keeping quiet?"

"You have got to be kidding me, Holly. Do you really think I would ever do that?" I had forgotten about the pain and trying to keep her calm. I was truly shocked to hear those words come out of her mouth after all this time; and after all I had done to make everything so perfect for her.

I still was just a manipulative, evil Mud Boy in her mind and always would be.

I released my hold on Holly and stood up, wincing slightly when I straightened my spine. I turned and walked out of the room without another word.

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><p><strong>Holly's POV<strong>

'He just said what?' I thought, anger quickly fading out the shock that hit from his words.

The LEP, my life, my friends, my job, my world, had agreed to hide whatever this was from me. This was why Foaly had been acting weird when I popped into his office. And if Foaly knew, so did the Commander. And if the LEP had approved something, it must have gone through the Council.

The Council knew. And I didn't. Everyone had been lying to me, keeping something hidden. And it was Artemis' fault.

'What would possibly make that okay to them? Just because Artemis said to do it? No, that doesn't make sense. I would have been informed if Arty had been threatening…that means…that means they agreed…this is something important to the People, or possibly to humans. Why did no one tell me?'

I had been deceived, probably manipulated and blatantly lied to by the most important people in my life. "Angry" was a vast understatement.

I thought of Commander Root and took a big breath. Artemis was starting to look concerned. 'Good for him,' I thought. 'He will be more than concerned in a minute.'

As I began to let my breath out, I tried to clear the emotion off my face. Arty's eyes opened slightly wider. Good.

I put as much force behind that punch as I could manage. I took all of the anger and threw it at his stomach with my fist. He hit the ground soundly. When he tried to get up, I kicked him back down.

I sort of stopped thinking. My feet moved to stand on his stomach and chest mechanically. When I got to the highest point of his chest, I remember squatting down to get closer to his face. Then I got angry again. Those eyes I had stared into, trusted…they had betrayed me. The same gaze I am forced to see every morning when I look in the mirror. Someone I had shared so much with, but who had kept so much from me. This was the last straw.

He honestly surprised me when he pinned me. I had momentarily forgotten that he had been training with Juliet.

Furious at myself for being so unguarded, I screamed at him.

"LET GO OF ME YOU MANIPULATIVE SNEAKY D'ARVITTING MUD BOY!"

D'arvitting is not a word. I didn't care. I was enraged. I was being held down well. I struggled, tried to kick, punch, wiggle out, but his hold was not budging.

"Holly, calm the hell down," he finally howled at me.

"No!" I shouted at him. I pushed against him harder, trying to beat his sorry self into a pulp. It wasn't working, but I was not giving up.

"What are you up to, you sneak, that you wanted to keep a secret so badly that you managed to threaten my entire office into keeping quiet?" I was seething. Mud Boy was going to get it.

Just as I managed to get a wrist free, his muscles relaxed against their grips.

"You have got to be kidding me, Holly," he said, his voice almost a whisper of disbelief and pain. I stopped struggling.

"Do you really think I would ever do that?"

He let go of me and got off the floor. He then walked straight out of the room without so much as a glance back.

Artemis Fowl just walked away from a fight. I had never seen the likes in my entire life. And the look on his face was not fear or anger, it was pure hurt. My rage suddenly felt much smaller as my conscience began to yell at me.

'I must be missing something,' I thought.

It just didn't make sense. If Artemis was doing something the LEP was unhappy about, they would stop it, not cooperate. They also wouldn't try to hide it from me.

'In fact,' I thought, 'I'd probably already be in trouble if they were angry with him.'

And they wouldn't help him unless it was really useful, I knew that much. They had almost knocked out the wafer/snow project to save the ice bergs idea because of the causalities at the initial meeting.

'It must be big, it must be wonderful, it must be precise and it was kept from me. What if it was one of the gifts?' I thought, horrified. That would make sense. If it was that big, Artemis probably could have gotten them to agree to it being a secret from me.

'Oh no,' I thought. 'What is going on? What have I done?"

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><p><strong>Okay guys, let me know if you liked how it went.<strong>

**Lots of love!**

**BQB**


	15. Realizations

**Alrighty, everyone. It's been a while since an update. =/ This will likely continue, due to a massive increase in my daily work. I love y'all and this story, but work comes first. (Also, if I'm busy, I can't write worth a damn. It wouldn't be fun to read.)  
>Speaking of not being fun to read, I'm gonna apologize for that last chapter's wretched style. Not trying that again. Ug, I'll try to make it all work out better in this one and explain the lingering wtf's about that one…<strong>

**On to another chapter! WooHoo!**

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><p><strong>Revelations <strong>

Artemis and Holly spent the rest of the morning away from everyone. Artemis holed up in his study while Holly spent a few hours in the gym. Each was avoiding the other, not ready to deal with what had been said. They both continued their isolation into mid-afternoon, expecting that the other had probably already eaten their midday meal. It is a pure fact of luck that Holly left the gym merely seconds after Artemis had left his computers, that Juliet was in the kitchen as Holly and Artemis walked in opposite doors at the same moment, and that neither of them were paying attention.

Juliet saw them at the same time and reacted faster than either of them thought possible. By the time Holly knew what was going on, she was being pushed towards the kitchen island, the door behind her slamming shut as Juliet moved to shove Artemis away from the door he had entered through, locking it. Less than three seconds later, Holly and Artemis were sitting at the table, Juliet having pushed them both into chairs.

"Now, you two are going to stop this nonsense. Yes, everyone knows what happened. We aren't stupid and you were visible through the security cam that watches Artemis' desk. We got sound, too."

Holly and Artemis looked down at the table, neither looking at the other, faces unreadable.

Juliet continued. "Fix it. Neither of you are leaving this room until you do. I'll check on you in a little while." She turned and walked to all of the doors, locking them. Holly and Artemis sat silently in confusion and apprehension. As Juliet walked to the last door, Artemis suddenly spoke. "Wait just one moment, Juliet; this is my house. You cannot keep me in here if I do not wish to be."

Juliet laughed, "Says who? Your mother suggested it, so she won't be helping. Butler will be watching to make sure Holly doesn't kill you. Your father and brothers agree, by the way."

With that, she walked out, locking the final door behind her.

Holly highly debated being furious, but she didn't have the heart to do it. She knew Juliet was trying to help. She also knew that between Artemis' and her own stubborn streaks, outside help was probably necessary if the rest of this vacation was to not be miserable.

"Artemis…" she began, quietly, looking up at him for the first time since Juliet had left.

Artemis stood up forcefully, knocking aside the previously occupied chair. He gave no signs of noticing the fallen furniture as he briskly crossed to the large bay windows that allowed for the sunlight to enter the kitchen almost all day. He stood stiffly, his hands clasped in front of him. His face was emotionless, but his eyes shown with anger as he stared out at the gardens.

"Tell me something, Major Short," he finally said. She felt a chill run down her spine. He had called her by rank. This was bad news on a good day, let alone right now.

'D'arvit,' she mentally swore for the hundredth time that day. She stood up.

"What is it, Artemis?" she asked, when he seemed to hesitate completing his previous request.

"Why can't you trust me?" he blurted suddenly. He seemed to have surprised himself, but after a moment of uncertainty passed his features, solid determination took its place.

Whatever Holly thought he was going to say, that wasn't it.

Her whole heart cinched up, her breath took a harsh hitch. Her hands, which had been midair in agitation dropped to the table with a sharp thud.

He turned suddenly, his anger and frustration momentarily replaced with fear. She had started coughing from her physical response to his words.

His body tensed up, anger returning but battling with the worry of her safety, then sudden curiosity. He had never before realized that he worried every time any small thing might harm Holly; only his heightened monitoring of his thoughts even caught the act. In the two seconds it took for Artemis to have these thoughts, Holly had stopped coughing and was staring at Artemis squarely, carefully steadying her breath. Her eyes were bright with tears.

"Arty," she said carefully, "I didn't mean it like that. I did not mean that I cannot truly trust you. I know I can, I just..." She hesitated, meeting his eyes. Once again, his expression had changed. They simultaneously realized how often they had been operating without words over the past few days. Did they really know one another so well? If they did, what was going on?

They just looked at each other for a few minutes. Each of them were caught up in reflection of the past few years, and how it effected this exact moment.

Holly flashed back to the pain and hurt of realizing that Artemis had lied to her, and the sweet relief of having the whole thing in their past. She thought of her suspicions that whatever big "plan" he had being something she might actually like and something that everyone agreed was best kept quiet. Whatever it was, it must be something that she would be shocked at, but something that she would see reason to, or just be able to avoid. The Council would not have missed putting as many ways out of the agreement as possible. If she didn't like it, she could always have a fit and they'd make sure it went away-she was sure of that. They would also never agree if it had any chance of being bad for their publicity, so it had to be something they could all brag about. Whether she liked it or not, whatever Artemis was doing was probably something she would like, possibly as a present (although she couldn't think of anything she could receive that had to go through the Council…). She still didn't like that everyone had kept it a secret from her, but it wouldn't have been out of malice or bribery. Foaly had to put in some great effort not to spill. He only kept his mouth shut when he wanted to; no amount of money or pain could prevent that. Artemis hadn't made anyone do anything they didn't like, and she knew it.

She looked up into his eyes, noticing that they shone with barely contained tears. Artemis despised crying, and Holly knew it. Yet here he was, displaying something he considered a terrible weakness.

At that moment, Holly would have given anything in the world to make those tears disappear.

'Stop, please. Oh, I'm sorry, please stop!' she was thinking, repeating in her head. Eventually the words began to pour out of her mouth as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry…I'm so sorry, Arty, please don't cry. Please, please, please stop! I'm so-o-orry," she said, succumbing to strong sniffles.

He believed her. Never in his life would he be able to figure out why, although he tried several different psychological theories it out. He really did believe this crying beautiful woman in front of him. She had not meant that she hated him. Relief washed over his muscles. He walked up to her, wrapping her in a tight hug. She buried her head in his shoulder, a hundred thoughts racing through her mind. After a few more minutes, she was all cried out and looked up at him.

He softly set his forehead on hers.

Suddenly, both of his hands were on her face, he once again met her gaze. Then he closed his eyes, took a steadying breath and kissed her.

She felt like her entire body had been shocked. They had been having quite a lot fun with kissing since Paris, but this was different. This was almost possessive. His hands had moved; one to the small of her back, the other on her neck, keeping her close to him. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, gripping him with as much strength as she had left.

At last they paused, noses touching, enjoying the feeling of the other being so close.

"Holly, you deserve to be angry. I'm sorry that I hid this from you. I had wanted it to be a surprise when it finally came together." He looked at her, a soft pleading in his eyes. She knew he was speaking the truth. It all made too much sense for him not to be.

"Anger or no anger, I shouldn't have said those things to you. I should have trusted you. I do trust you."

"I know you do, and I don't want to change that." A smile played on his lips as he saw her face light in pleasure at his words.

"I do suppose," he continued, "that I should go ahead and tell you about this little plan of mine."


	16. Six Geese ALaying

**A/N: Hello loves,**

**Another chappie! And more impressively, an end to the 6th day. Definitely needed to happen.**

**I edited the last chapter. Hopefully I changed everything that needed it.**

**I hope no one's gotten bored with the slow pace. It's the best way for me to write it.**

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><p><strong>Six Geese A-Laying<strong>

The entire household seemed to sense that there was less tension in the air after Holly and Artemis finally left the kitchen. Briefly, Holly wondered how Juliet and Butler had managed to procure the new couple more than five minutes alone in a manor that was occupied with over 100 workers for the Ball, but she shrugged it off. No one would argue with a man the size of a mountain, so she knew she really shouldn't be surprised.

Knowing that the Ball was taking place in barely twenty-four hours, Holly and Artemis stole Juliet from under the Head Florist's command to get to work on costumes.

"Thank you!" Juliet had said, exasperated, as she washed the cuts she had received from trying to arrange roses. "My hands are a wreck. I am trained to maim people, not get sliced up by pretty little flowers."

Holly laughed as she tried to sympathize with the taller woman. She knew that, in all honesty, those flowers would have done the same or worse to her hands. Knives she could dodge. Thorns, on the other hand, were just a bad idea.

For the next few hours, the trio relaxed and joked as Juliet poked and prodded Holly with pins, adjusting a seam here, adding a ribbon there. Artemis supervised (none of them wanted to know what would happen if he actually tried to sew) as the many pieces of her costume came together. He was banished from the room for a while when the body suit was worked on. Juliet had noticed the almost hungry look that flashed in Artemis' eyes when Holly's adjustments called cloth to be removed or rearranged in a way that showed a little too much skin. While Holly thought kicking him out was silly (it wasn't as if he hadn't seen her in less throughout their adventures), Juliet seemed to wish to retain at least the illusion of Holly's virtue. When she relayed this to Holly, the human-shaped-elf simply laughed.

"Yes, because Arty has no idea what the female form looks like without clothing. Really, Juliet," she chuckled, "he has how many medical degrees? And even Artemis has probably looked up stuff. He is a male." Juliet joined in the laughter as she pictured Artemis behind one of his computer screens, looking at something other than a bank account or scientific journal.

"Oh I'd love to have proof of that! It'd be perfect blackmail material."

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><p>Dinner was announced at 7. Artemis knocked on the door he had been banished from earlier. He heard Juliet shout, "Perfect! It's just perfect!" and then heard footsteps rushing to the door.<p>

"Oh good, it's you. Come see her!"

Before Artemis could argue (for some reason, he wanted to wait until the Ball to see her in the costume), he was pulled into the room.

Artemis froze when he looked up.

Holly's outfit was not complete. The hair and makeup were not done and fresh flowers would be added to the look tomorrow.

The general look of the costume, however, was very apparent. His face flushed as he realized just how well his design had worked out.

The whole thing was supposed to advance Holly's already stunning appearance. 'Well,' he thought to himself, 'that worked better than I thought it would.'

The skirt's form and pattern made her already long legs stretch on for decades. The slit in the fabric helped quite a bit. The red hour-glass on the corset made her waist seem unnaturally small, but somehow still wonderfully in balance with the rest of her body. Her naturally small chest was not ignored by the shape, but it wasn't so enhanced as to make her uncomfortable. It was all balanced by the skirt's fullness at the hips, and the small show of skin on her neck. The fabric's webbed pattern swirled perfectly around her body, working with her natural curves.

After a full minute of silence, Holly let out the laugh she had been holding since she'd seen his face. She would ask Juliet to send her video of that expression later.

Juliet, finally giving into her own giggles, slapped Artemis on the shoulder and exited, leaving Holly in her costume with Artemis.

Whether or not she realized that Holly had no way to get out of that thing by herself, she had put Artemis in a very interesting position.

Holly suspected that Juliet's speech about virtue had been an excuse to see what would happen in this particular situation. She mentally congratulated the Butler for successfully throwing Artemis in a circumstance where he would probably have no idea what to do.

It seemed, however, that Holly was wrong about that assumption. Artemis' face had changed suddenly, and the look she was receiving sent shivers down her spine.

He walked towards her after ensuring that the door was locked behind him.

When he reached the place she was awkwardly standing, he slowly cocked his head to the side as he began to circle her. He ran his hand around her collar bone and shoulders as he walked.

She stood quietly, although she was screaming inside. His touch felt like the most wonderful combination of fire and ice; she could feel goose bumps arise where he had traced his fingers. She held her breath, willing herself not to collapse into him.

"Do you like it?" he whispered in her ear, startling her. She hadn't realized that he had moved so close.

His fingers began to trace up her neck towards the ear he was whispering into. She knew that if he started touching her ears, even in human form, that the mental scream of frustration she was holding in would turn into a string of even more frustrated curses and that she wouldn't be able to keep those all quiet and in her head.

Instead of letting herself lose all mental control, she stepped away from him, turning to face him in the process.

She was a little surprised and flattered to see that there were red blotches on his face and that his breath was a little shallow.

She met his eyes, a playful look in them.

"Yes, I quite like it," she supplied, breaking eye contact to grab her skirt and spin around, allowing the fabric to billow out like a dancer.

In the split-second she turned her head, he moved faster than she ever thought possible for him. Before she even knew what was happening, his hands were on her hips and his lips were crushing hers. She tried to protest, she really did. These arguments, however, never made it into any kind of physical reaction; they popped like bubbles as soon as they were formed. She leaned into him, suddenly very happy that Juliet had decided to leave them alone to figure out how to get the costume off.

Artemis, it seemed, had not forgotten that Holly needed to get out of his little design. He also knew exactly how it was put together (seeing as how he had helped create it), but he made a very slow show of helping her take everything off. He removed the cape with deft fingers, moving her closer to the table where everything was to be laid out until tomorrow. He paused his ruthless attack on her lips as he folded it up behind her, setting it down on the table.

Next, he untied the straps that kept the skirt attached to the corset, keeping her lips happily occupied. He folded this as well, setting it on the cape.

Suddenly he dropped his lips to her neck, turning her around until she faced away from him. He traced her neck and shoulders, moving easily from skin to fabric, nipping slightly along the way. Every small change made Holly gasp. Her hands were in fists, tension lining every muscle of her body. He was teasing her and she didn't like it.

When he got the corset loosened, he slid it down her hips and legs, allowing it to fall to the ground. Before he could act, she stepped out of the garment and away from him. She spun around to retrieve the fallen piece of her costume, adding it to the others on the table.

By now, all she wore was the patterned one piece. It zipped up the front, the zippers' teeth hidden by a light flap of extra fabric.

She was going to have some fun with this.

The grin that slid across her face was enough to worry Artemis. He knew she would react to his teasing, but he had no clue how.

When was ungracefully shoved into a nearby chair, he decided that worrying was not going to get him anywhere. Best to just sit back and enjoy. If he got punched a few times, the sounds Holly had let out earlier were more than enough to keep him happy.

She stood in front of him, eyes dancing with mischief. She began to walk closer, unzipping the piece as she went. When she had gotten to the chair, she'd undone the top enough to reveal the black bra underneath and part of her muscled stomach.

Pure stubbornness kept Artemis from outright drooling. The most beautiful woman he'd ever seen was standing less than a foot away from him in a skin-tight, black one piece. Holly almost felt sorry for him.

She slowly lifted one knee, placing it beside his hips as she shifted her weight and brought the other knee up, straddling him.

She sat back, keeping her weight towards her heels. His eyes slowly drank in the sight of her, wandering down the long line of her neck to the small patch of skin peeking through the slit of her top, stopping at her hips and back up. Holly had to fight from giggling as his face became more and more eager with each passing second.

When his eyes met hers once again, she grinned. He raised an eyebrow slightly, not knowing what she was planning.

She moved her hands up to his face, slowly tracing his features. His eyes darted between her hands and her face, a grin stretching across his cheeks.

She leaned in and kissed him, lightly. She stopped, meeting his eyes. This was the closest their bodies had ever been and they both knew it. She grinned at the increased shallowness of his breath and other physical giveaways to his thoughts.

Suddenly, she was on her feet, strutting to the bathroom. She didn't look back as she walked in and shut the door, letting herself out of the body suit and back into her day clothes that lay on the floor.

'We really should keep a count of who wins our little games,' Artemis thought. 'Then again, maybe not. She's catching up fast.'

* * *

><p>After dinner, Angeline gave everyone their assignments for the next day. The ball was to start at 6:30, but guests were expected as early as 3:00. The Fowl Matriarch wanted everyone to be in costume by 8, so they were to do their assigned jobs and get ready when the party officially started. Everyone was to be finished by 5 or 6, depending on how long it would take to get prepared. Needless to say, the girls were assigned earlier-ending projects. The men did not have long hair to deal with, she argued.<p>

Myles and Beckett were to stay out of everyone's way. When they protested, Angeline suggested that they work in the greenroom Artemis had shown Holly the day before. They agreed happily. The entire family had known it was to be a surprise for Holly, so they hadn't been able to spend as much time as normal in there since she arrived, lest she learn about it too early.

The boys were on security detail for the entire day. Many people would be coming and going, they were to ensure that no one came who was not supposed to. While most of their guests were legitimate, some of them still had enemies who would love an excuse to take advantage of the costume-themed event.

Juliet was to make sure that everyone who RSVP'd was still coming and check any guests they were bringing.

Holly, who had made it clear that she did not wish to be left out of duties just because she was technically a guest, was put in charge of helping the DJ pick out music for the event. They had a live band, but for breaks, the DJ would step in.

Angeline, of course, was to monitor everything. How she planned to do this, Holly and Artemis did not know, but neither of them felt the need to point that out to her.

After they got their assignments, Holly and Artemis went to the billiard room to play pool. Despite Artemis' lack of coordination in more strenuous activities, he was very good at pool. He claimed that it was physics. Holly didn't care why he was good at it, just that he was beating her thoroughly. He helped her as they played and slowly she started making shots more consistently.

They talked, teased and flirted while they played. Had anyone else seen the couple, they would have sworn that they were seeing into some sort of twilight zone.

Around midnight, Holly's yawns were becoming more pronounced and Artemis declared that it was time to retire for the evening.

When they got back to his bedroom, his arm was wrapped around her as she sleepily allowed herself to be steered around.

When they stopped moving, she took a second to look around. Her eyes landed on the bed. Something was on top of the duvet. She considered groaning and rolling her eyes, but she knew she wasn't getting out of the gift, so she shrugged instead.

Looked up at him with a disgruntled expression and he grinned. "Go look at it," was all he said.

She saw yet another plain box with a gold bow on top. The box was only about as tall as her human-shaped hand, thinner on the sides.

She took the bow off and opened the box, letting it stay on the bed.

She glanced up at Artemis, curious, as she lifted the box and carefully took out the item inside.

In her palm lay a golden egg seated in a box of some sort, resting on two large wheels. The carriage was led by a small humanoid figure. The entire thing was mounted on a thin slice of marble.

She set it down to examine it. Solid gold, accented with jewels. The egg was etched with a pattern, forming lines from the top to the bottom. She noticed a small line around the center of the egg and lifted the top to reveal a small hole inside. She replaced the top and took a better look at the small figure pulling the egg. It was a pudgy, angelic thing with a cloth around its' hips. It looked sexless, but she wasn't sure.

She looked to Artemis for an explanation. This piece was easily over a century old, the gold was not fairy made or crafted, although it was some of the best work she had ever seen by a human.

"It's called _Cherub with Chariot_," he told her.

"That's very original," she replied sarcastically.

He smiled.

"Have you ever heard of the human jeweler, Faberge`?"

She nearly dropped the priceless egg. Yes, she'd heard of him. He was respected as a gold-worker even among the fairies. Before the Russians had torn their own monarchy down, the last king (they call them czars) had commissioned Faberge` to make beautiful eggs for his mother and wife.

"I thought that all of his works were snatched up after that big war you Mud Men had last century," was her only reply. She was still shocked. Even among fairies, this piece was worth her weight in gold.

"Most of them were," he said. "Five of them, however, are supposedly missing. This one was created in 1888 and most of the Human world has no idea what it even looks like. Only one blurry photograph and a written description exist in historical documents. It's name was given as a last resort. No one knows Faberge's original intent or inspiration behind it, only that it was ordered and was given as a gift. After the revolution, all reports of its existence stopped."

"How did you find it?" she asked, awe-struck. 'And how the hell did you get your hands on it?' she wanted to add, but she didn't feel like making words at the moment. Despite her limited knowledge of human history, she knew this was an impressive thing to be holding.

"It ended up with a dwarf, of course. I tracked it down on the fairy black market. He apparently had no idea what he had. Mulch assisted in procuring it for me. I did not steal it, I assure you."

"Ha," Holly laughed. "You still ripped the dwarf off, didn't you?"

"Oh, he thought he was getting a great deal," he said, offhandedly. "Like I said, he had no idea what this really was, or how valuable it would be if he'd wanted to sell it to a human."

Realization crossed Holly's mind. This little item could have caused some big problems if it had been missing for a century and then suddenly popped up from a mysterious source. Artemis had probably saved the LEP a stack of red tape in keeping its whereabouts quiet.

She turned and smiled at him.

"You little sneaky, clever, annoying Mud Man."

"Holly, that may be the nicest thing you have ever called me."

She laughed, walked over and kissed him softly on the cheek.

"Thank you, Arty," she whispered in his ear. "Now, let's go to bed. It's been a long day and tomorrow is going to be longer."

As they curled up to sleep, Holly wondered what Artemis would have up his sleeve for the Ball. She knew he would do something. She smiled, she probably wanted to wait to find out anyway.

'Alright,' she thought, 'some surprises aren't so bad.'

* * *

><p><strong>Yes, I just did that.<strong>

**No, don't kill me; if you do, you'll never know how the story ends.**

**Oh, and the gift and the day kinda have something in common! Also, the bits about the egg are entirely true. No one knows where the Egg commissioned in 1888 is today.**

**:)**

**Love, Peace and Dolphins,**

**BlueQueenBee**


	17. Explanations, redone

**A/N: I re-did this chappie. I'm very sorry for how it went earlier and I hope this makes more sense. If you have any questions, feel free to message me.**

**Thanks to Ru and HeadlessHoncho for making me redo this. I really am sorry about the last chapter…I wanted to put one up and should have waited until I had slept to do so.**

**The chapter is the same for the first few paragraphs, then it changes when the dialog begins.**

**Explinations**

The LEP office was buzzing more than usual. No one knew why Commander Kelp and several Council members were upset, but that didn't mean the Plaza's workers were stupid, either. The corridor leading to the Council offices was abandoned, a strange thing during the politicians' busiest season. Today, however, no soul dared interrupting the Councilmen for fear of immediate job termination. Three reporters and two Privates had already been sacked that day; everyone had learned their lessons.

No1 was very nervous. He had never seen so many people upset at one time (well, at least not upset at him). Qwan was going about his daily activities, seemingly oblivious to the younger demon's angst. As No1 tried to concentrate on his work, he kept making small mistakes that usually resulted with a slew of curses to fly from the imaginative demon's mind. After Qwan heard the seventeenth translation/adaptation of Shakespeare's "I bite my thumb at you" insult, the teacher decided he'd had enough.

He dragged No1 to the Ops Booth. Foaly took longer than normal to admit them to his workspace, claiming that he was triple-checking their identities in case one of the Councilmen had managed to figure out a way around his technology and had come to fire him. Since Foaly seemed likely to give them a dull lecture, Qwan pointed out No1's pale outlook to the centaur.

Foaly, knocked out of his rant, realized that No1 was visibly upset.

"Look, No1, you didn't do anything wrong. Don't let those fusspots upset you." Foaly and Qwan were equally surprised at Foaly's quick analysis of the situation and seemingly correct reaction to it. Apparently being a father was good for Foaly's intuition.

"B-b-b-but the Commander said I was in trouble! Difficolta! Tribulationis! Kesulitan!" The little demon looked terrified.

Foaly mentally giggled at the use of the Commander's as a possible outcome for No1, but quickly realized that the youth he was looking at was actually worried.

"Look, No1, you're fine. They will be angry and shout, but you didn't do anything wrong." Foaly tried to sound as convincing as he could; the demon's face relaxed, slightly.

"Why were they so mad in the first place? Anyone who looked would have known Artemis isn't fully human. How did they even miss that? There's no way a human could find us...there are spells against it." No1 was so intent on his tirade that he missed Foaly's total confusion at his last statement.

"Wait," he said, suddenly, "you mean that humans can't find faries? But, that makes…" he sat quiet, thinking of just how much sense that idea made.

"You are correct," said Qwan. "Humans were spelled to never be able to find Fairykind on their own. The few instances in the past where humans have come across Fairies have involved humans who actually had some type of Fairy blood in them. Fowl, as it just happens, has quite a bit of it."

Foaly was, for one of a few memorable instances, silent.

Qwan took this as a que to continue.

"You've read the Booke, every Fairy has. The rules specifically state that no human may be given knowledge of the Fairies without repercussions, yet the entire LEP has managed to give information to Artemis Fowl without any sort of magical backlash. It doesn't matter who he tells this information to-he has no magic to actually lose. Do you see it yet?"

Foaly was staring at Qwan like he had grown another horn. Cogs began to turn in Foaly's head as Qwan's words sunk in. It all made perfect sense. Technically, he, Holly and the late Commander Root should have felt some sort of reprieve from exposing as much to Artemis Fowl as they had. Just the fact that during Holly's kidnapping Fowl learned not only that Fairies existed, but also gained a vast large amount of knowledge on how they operated, was enough to have each of them banned from Fairykind. Yet, no red flags had gone up; no one's magic disappeared. Foaly had wondered in the past, but he just chalked up to the kid's genius. Could it have been more than that?

Foaly looked up at Qwan, a question clear on his face.

Instead of allowing Foaly to start a lecture as to how this whole situation should be impossible, Qwan decided to just answer the rest of the questions that the centaur could ask.

"Artemis is not human, he never was. A million different humans could have been born into the same situation he was: wealthy, the world at his fingertips, endless possibilities, and never have ended upon the path he did. He and his brothers are the most magical humans in Western Europe at the moment. The last humans that possessed as much fairy blood as those three were executed over 300 years ago by their own race."

Foaly sat down, hard.

"This is not possible. We have trackers on humans with fairy blood. Fowl's family isn't on the list." Foaly was preparing himself for a panic attack – if his technology had missed something this big, the Council would have his entire budget before the week was over.

"When was the last time anyone checked those names? You forget, Foaly, that humans reproduce much faster than we do."

Before Qwan had finished his sentence, Foaly was checking the logs to see when the last Recon squad had checked in on the above-ground magical beings. He swore in surprise. No one had done a top-side test for magic in almost seventy years. That was enough time for almost three generations of humans to have been born.

"And of course, there is no way to do a satellite sweep. That's why we send Recon up to do it. It's impossible to look for magic beings unless you're close to them. We can look for ritual sites or active magic being done, but we can't search for magic within people. It's how the People have been getting away with unauthorized surface jaunts for centuries. As long as no one performs anything stronger than shielding or the Mesmer, we can't detect them."  
>"And no human has that much active magic in them," No1 added. "At least, not anymore. They used to, when human-fairy children were first born, but the magic pool has been diluted too much."<p>

Foaly nodded, intent on his screens.

"Okay, according to our last sweep, there is no way this kid has magic. There just isn't. No human has enough magic to even Mesmerize with."

Qwan smirked. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes of course I'm sure!" Foaly shouted. "The data is all right here."

"And you're positive that you checked every human on the earth at that time?" Qwan looked amused, which worried the centaur. There was something he didn't know, which was almost always bad for him.

"I...well…no, I don't suppose I can say that. There have always been places Recon jocks avoid or were too lazy to check."

"What kinds of places?" Qwan asked politely.

"Mostly in places with extremely low human populations. It takes longer to search individual households when they are 100 miles apart, so some officers don't bother."

"Can you pinpoint which areas were missed?" No1 added. While he knew where his teacher was going with this argument, he wanted to see how Foaly would react when he realized his mistake. He was already nervous about the Commander's actions; if Foaly was going to have a temper-tantrum, he wanted to see it coming and get out of the way. The poor little demon really didn't like confrontation.

Foaly scowled and began slamming keys. In a few seconds, a map popped up on the main display slowing the 7 continents. A half second later, red dots began to appear. Some locations had only a few dots while others were covered in red. One of the biggest red spots was over Eastern Europe, another was through the Amazon. The Arctic shown mostly red, but that wasn't surprising. Life was very difficult to even maintain in those areas and fairies hated cold. It made sense that they would avoid snow and radiation-covered locations for a basic recon job. The same rule applied to the jungles that shown red. The few human tribes that inhabited those areas were known to have their own types of human magic, but it was monitored very regularly.

Foaly was concerned about the large spot over Eastern Europe. That seemed odd to him. As he was trying to recall why the Recon squad would have avoided that area, No1 interrupted his thoughts.

"What about Ireland? Faries love the location; did anyone check Fowl's residence?"

Foaly glanced worriedly at No1 and refocused the view on the screens. He prepared for the worst, but let out the breath he had been holding when he saw that the area around Fowl's estate was not marked red. Someone had checked that area for a hotspot.

His attention shifted to the massive spot in Eastern Europe. He zoomed in on the location, pulling up specs while he did so.

Qwan grinned. Foaly winced when he saw this-demons didn't have a good face for smiles.

"What's with the smirk?" Foaly asked pointedly.

"Are you wondering why no fairies checked this location?" Qwan apparently felt like making Foaly work for his information.

"Yes, in fact I am. It doesn't make sense. The forests through here tend to have small but well-populated villages. They should have been checked."

"Unless there was a reason that the fairy who checked the location felt it was not wise or necessary."

Foaly was fed up with Qwan's act, and said so.

The demon laughed. "Oh alright, I'll tell you. No need to get your tail in a knot."

Foaly's expression darkened, but he knew better than to respond. He felt like whatever Qwan was going to say was probably the key to keeping his job.

"Humans are a very superstitious group. We know that they have their own twisted tales of what once may have been truth. What stories do humans have about those forests?"

Foaly scowled. He did not have time for this. Instead of arguing, however, he pulled up his file on the topic and quickly skimmed it. What he saw made his head hurt even worse.

"You have GOT to be kidding me," he declared, exasperated.

No1 jumped in with a cheery, "Nope!"

His cheery outlook dimmed just as quickly as it had come.

Qwan, finally taking pity on the obviously distressed centaur, decided to fill in the blanks, so to speak.

"Humans have always feared those forests, with good reason. Many of their mythical tales have roots there. When the fairies were driven underground, quite a few of the ones who refused to leave made homes among those trees and rivers. The humans hadn't taken over, the area was too difficult to maneuver or destroy. It didn't help that everytime someone wandered into the forest that they'd come running out shouting about ghosts and demons. In truth, they were run out by fairy scouts. Tales of goblins, trolls and fairies began to grow into horror stories of monsters. A few of the more creative scouts used human religion against them, convincing them that devils inhabited the area. One or two humans a decade would even manage to glimpse a fairy completing the ritual, thus creating most of the human lore about full moons. It doesn't hurt that shiny blue sparks jump out of the earth and engulf the fairy completing the ritual. Some crazy human even decided that the fairies were stealing souls through this process.

Admittedly, the fairies liked playing tricks on humans. They had no problem spooking the scouts or villagers. No one ever really got hurt, but they felt it was due justice for running an entire civilization underground.

Over the centuries, the fairies began to die out. Even their long lifespans were not enough to keep a civilization going if they have no outside contact. Remember, those who remained above ground were unwelcome to do so; Haven and Atlantis were forced to cut off most communications with them. Some of the fairies married humans, creating the largest population of hybrids in history. Many of the hybrids were seen as evil by their human relatives, however, and were killed. Usually, the mother was a human and the child would be raised by human family. If the mother could get away from the family before they realized what the child really was, it had a chance. Apparently elf/human and pixie/human hybrid babies look like smaller human babies-the ears don't become pointed until they are a few weeks old.

Despite the concern that the babies were cursed, quite a few of them survived, even creating small communes and living together. Several of them married and interbred to keep the lines alive after their fairy relatives had been either killed or hunted into hiding.

After only a few generations, the hybrids could pass for humans. Many formed circuses to hide their individual oddities. They made a good deal of money out of the deal, from what I understand.

By beginning of the last few millennia, the blood magic had been diluted past the point where those of hybrid decent could actually perform magic, although if two hybrid-decents paired, the child might occasionally be considered a powerful manipulator or mind-reader, skills that turned out to be very useful during human wars. It didn't hurt that they seemed to heal unnaturally quickly.

This Fowl boy? Check his family line. If I'm not mistaken, the first of the more renowned in his father's ancestry was the result of two hybrids during the early crusades. I'd guess that the entire line is dotted with pixie and elfin blood. They probably married other hybrid-borns as well. Magic tends drawn to itself. It's probably safe to say that this Fowl child has the blood from several of the original People who stayed above ground after the war."

Foaly stared, numb. He remembered learning all of this in school, that humans who carried magic in their blood were likely to be drawn to the magic in others, especially if they had met before full human maturity. Humans tended to ignore magic's call once they exited puberty.

He also knew that about half of the humans' myths were founded in magical roots. Succubus's, for instance, were originally women with elfin blood. They were deemed more beautiful than most humans and had a nack for 'entrancing' men to do what they wished. Cupid was a actually an elf who liked to dance around naked in the moon light and played tricks by mesmerizing humans into loving each other, hoping that if all humans loved each other that they would allow the People back onto the surface. The 'witches' in early American history were just pixie ancestors who could heal. Count Dracula gained fame among humans by winning bets and then sleeping with the wives of those who had lost to him during the next full moon. The women would wander into the woods and come back the next morning as if in a trance. The husbands claimed that their wives had lost their souls in the night because their women apparently refused to sleep with them again. What really happened was that the Count, the child of several generations of magical beings, filled the women with magic after he completed his Ritual. The women, forlorn once they realized that they could never feel that sort of wonder again, swore off most human pleasures.

Foaly just nodded, again working all the information he had ever been presented on the subjects over in his mind.  
>"Of course, this does not quite explain the genius and capabilities of this young Fowl boy, does it?"<p>

No1 was smiling by now, realizing that he knew something that Foaly didn't. It was a rare occasion and the demon intended to savor it.

"No, no it doesn't."

Foaly knew that if he ever quit the LEP, he could make a good deal of money off his patents alone. He was now replaying the exact figures in his head. This was in no way worth his paycheck.

Qwan smiled. "Dozens of pure human children have had the resources this child has had available. Why did none of them figure out that you really exist? And why, when human greed should have led him to wish to use us for his uses, did he instead fall in love with a certain elfin Captain and decide to help us?"

Foaly put his head in his hands. Everything just clicked into place.

"Not only is the Fowl line the product of more than 5 different pixie and elf-human hybrids, and one pixie and elf mix, but his mother's line is descended from a small offshoot of the same heritage as Frond. If you look into her history, all of her ancestors were peace-loving and tried to leave the earth in a better condition than it was when they arrived.

Also, Holly's great grandfather was Cupid, which, thanks to the stupid spell that moron put on himself, makes humans literally drawn to her. That's why she's on Recon and not Retrieval. She doesn't know this, of course. It's also why her mother preferred working under the surface. Humans can sense that stupid spell and reach out."

"It doesn't hurt that the Mud Boy is a genius," snarled Foaly. This was all just too much. This should have been impossible, but not only was it possible, it was happening. On his watch.

"No, no it doesn't. Just think of what could have happened if we had let this child, and his two younger brothers who are on a very similar track to his, grow up without interference from the People. Honestly, this is probably the best thing that could have happened. Not only is the boy willing to cooperate with us, he is volunteering to help us. It could have been a very different story."

Foaly cringed. The demon was right.

No1 suddenly spoke up, "So when do we get to see Holly again?"

Shocked by the lightness of the question, Foaly stared at the smaller fairy. No1 slumped slightly, his tail falling.

Foaly groaned. Children would be the death of him.

"We will see Holly again after the full moon."

"But I thought she was going to stay up there with Artemis," argued No1.

"We don't know yet. She may choose to not take the position. Besides, you know she will come back to say hello and get her things. Not to mention that you will be able to go see her if you like."

"Oh, right."

"Well, that's enough for one day, No1," said Qwan, seemingly unphased by the jarring conversation. "Let's finish up the experiment you began yesterday and then you can go home."

"Okay!" No1 agreed, excitedly, rushing out of the Ops Booth. Qwan followed, at a more mature pace.

"Holly is going to kill me," Foaly muttered, unearthing a bucket of carrots before going back to work.

**Hope y'all like it. :)**

**I do really love reviews. So many people "Favorite" or watch the story but don't review. Why? Why do you do these things to me? **

**Ah well, I hope you enjoy the story, review or not.**

**Peace, love and dolphins, **

**BlueQueenBee**


	18. Good Morning, Sunshine

**So, to make up for that awful last chapter (which has been updated, by the way. If you haven't re-read it, please go do so) here is some FLUFF.**

**You have been warned.**

* * *

><p><strong>Good Morning, Sunshine. <strong>

Her face was in something wonderful, soft and warm. She took a deep breath and realized that it smelled amazing, a body's slight natural odor of sweat, skin and in this case, pheromones, tinged with a light cologne she knew she recognized. Her body was cozy and cushioned against something solid and warm. Her muscles were more relaxed than she could ever remember them being, she never wanted to move from this spot. She slowly realized that the something she had her face resting on was moving slightly, up and down. She then realized that the rest of the thing she was laying against was moving as well. She scrunched her face in annoyance; she really didn't want to be moving right now.

She let the problem of what, or more likely, whom, she was lying on, wander away from her mind. She drifted back into her own thoughts and tried to recall the dream she had been having.

She was on a hillside, seated on a blanket with a picnic lunch in front of her. She could feel the warmth of the sun through the umbrella that was up to protect her skin from the poisonous rays. The view was something out of a story. She was a few dozen meters from a small pond surrounded by bushes and lush, green grass. Trees formed a loose circle around the water, transforming into a barrier between the place they were and the outside world. She looked behind her to see a small trail leading out of the clearing through the trees.

Only when she had soaked in her surroundings did she look at the person sitting with her. Although she couldn't see his face, she knew it was Artemis. He looked so peaceful and happy. She wasn't sure how she knew this, but she did. The boy, no, man…he had been a 'man' to her for some time, she realized…in front of her was completely happy and content. She knew then that it was a dream; she had never seen the real Artemis like this, although she hoped to someday.

Suddenly the dream was falling apart, it was fading out. She saw this Artemis getting pulled farther and farther away from her. She moved to say something, to keep this beautiful moment, but no words left her mouth. Her police instincts kicked in, even though she knew this was a dream. She didn't want to watch it just fade away. She jumped, reaching for the now distant figure.

Her world was now black, there was a sharp pain in her ribs. She blinked, shocked to find blue fabric filling her vision. She stopped struggling to move.

Artemis loosened his grip on the smaller woman. He had woken up when she launched herself off his chest and somehow landed on his head with her stomach, explaining the pain she was now feeling. He had grabbed her in surprise, pulling her off his head and away from him, sitting up in the process. He now had her pinned to the mattress beside him; the duvet cover, which had been tossed around in the squabble, was covering her face.

When she was released, Holly yanked the covers off her face, glaring at the confused but amused human.

"Good morning, sunshine," he drawled, now awake and alert. He found it too difficult to resist making fun of her as she tried to wake up.

Her glare deepened as she tried to get untangled from the bedding. He reached out and tugged on the sheet she was fussing with and it fell off in one movement. At this point Holly was bored with glaring at him, so she rolled her eyes instead.

"What was that about, Holly?" Concern crept into Artemis' voice, making Holly relax.

"Nothing," she lied, "it was just a bad dream."

"What were you dreaming about?" Artemis was not buying her nonchalance.

"I don't remember, Arty. Don't worry about it." She knew that if she was too defensive, he would sense her lie.

Artemis wasn't fooled, but he also knew if Holly wanted to tell him, she would have. He saw no reason to push the issue. She was awake now; he could take her mind off her problems for a while.

With that motivation in mind, Artemis reached out to Holly playfully. Her face showed confusion as he snaked his hand around her waist. He shifted suddenly, dragging her to him. She landed in his lap, a knee on each side of his hips. She blushed furiously remembering the previous afternoon when they had been in the same position.

It seemed Artemis was thinking of the same thing.

"I think I owe you one for yesterday," he whispered in her pointed ear. His bedroom was secured so no random manor inhabitant or visitor could wander in and find a 3-foot-tall woman, so she had returned to her normal form when they went to bed.

To say that she shivered at these words would be a gross understatement. Her body physically shook from head to toe, her feet even bouncing when it reached them. She felt Artemis' grin widen shamelessly.

He moved the hand that had been keeping him balanced and shifted his weight, leaning up against the headboard for support.

'D'arvit,' she thought, 'I'm not going to get out of this. I'm not even sure I want to get out of this. D'arvit.'

She looked up, meeting his eyes that always hauntingly mirrored hers. She noticed a shift in his gaze half a second before his now-freed hand pressed into her lower back, pulling her even closer. They were now chest to chest, she could barely keep her head back enough to avoid smashing his face.

She could feel his heart beating, nearly vibrating her body. Hers was moving just as quickly. Their breaths were matched and shallow.

She knew that if he didn't move quickly that she'd be kissing him like a mad woman before he could react. She shifted her weight uncomfortably, unrealizingly grinding her hips into him.

This movement, it seemed, was what Artemis was waiting for. He moved his hands to the back of her thighs, moving her up and back. He moved with more grace than she would have imagined possible for him as he pulled his feet under his body and tossed her on the mattress, pinning her between his arms.

She had squeaked when she landed, but now lay silently, looking up at him, wondering what he would do next. She was already quite worked up and being bodily thrown across a bed and pounced upon had done little to help matters. Holly realized that she was sweating, even though she was chilled when she had first pulled the covers off. 'D'arvit,' she thought again.

He said nothing, just dropped his head to her neck, slowly kissing from her mostly bare shoulders (she was in a tanktop) to her neck, just below her ear. Her heart rate was so high that she was wondering if elves in their eighties could have heart attacks. He seemed fairly calm, but his pulse was not quite as slow as it would normally be. She was putting all of her effort into not squirming. A single movement on her part would mean brushing up against his body and…well, she really didn't want to think about that.

He repeated the movement up and down her neck twice before finally stopping at the base of her extremely sensitive ear.

"Now I think you owe me," Artemis whispered playfully, gently nipping at the ear.

Before Holly could process what he was saying, he was up and off the bed, walking towards the bathroom.

Her breath stopped short for a moment, shocking her slightly. She blinked as her heart rate suddenly dropped and her vision cleared. She heard a soft chuckling as the bathroom door closed.

Finally able to form a coherent thought, she wondered what had gotten into him. He had gotten bolder about showing affection. She didn't think she minded. 'But,' she argued to herself, 'this is going to take some getting used to. And some monitoring. On both parties.' She blushed as she realized that someone should probably also make sure that she didn't get into trouble. What that trouble might be, she didn't know, but she sure didn't like the idea of Angeline walking in on her son looking at Holly like that.

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><p><strong>I love you guys. :)<strong>

**Please Read and Review! I love to get them!**

**BQB**


	19. What could possibly go wrong?

**AN: Random, hopefully fun chapter. I wanted to give you guys something as a thank you for being so supportive of my story!**

**Also, thanks again go to Ru and Danny for awesomeness.**

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><p><strong>What could possibly go wrong?<strong>

Angeline Fowl appeared to be furious. Her eyes were hard and narrowed at the five faces in front of her. She noted the puddles forming around their feet, the hunched shoulders and lowered gazes, even from her eldest son. Her eyebrow rose only slightly, but her husband saw it and smiled. He stood behind the couches that the perpetrators occupied. He knew she was as shocked as he; their oldest son was not known for revealing himself as vulnerable. The fact that he was outright sorry for the whole mess was enough to get everyone off the hook. As Artemis Senior looked at his wife, he knew that she wouldn't let the group walk away without some sort of reprobation. It would be amusing to the coming affair.

"First of all, Holly," Angeline began, her voice shaking for a second seemingly out of anger but what her husband knew was amusement.. Holly visibly shrank back in guilt. "You will in no way be held responsible for any of this, do you understand me?" Holly sat up in surprise as Artemis fought a grin; he had known that Holly, at the very least, would never be able to get into real trouble while she was in Fowl Manor; Angeline would never be so impolite, plus liked the woman far too much to care. Holly, who was dreading being forced to go back to Haven, was taken aback.

"That's incredibly kind of you, Madam Fowl, but," Holly stopped short as Angeline interrupted her, "I do not wish to hear any argument." Holly stopped taking.

"Now to the rest of you," four pairs of eyes snapped to the woman, "What took place here?"

Artemis had an answer prepared, of course.

"Mother," he began, softly, hoping to calm her.

"What have I told you about that name?" Angeline cut in. Artemis decided to switch tactics.

"Mom, if anyone is to blame, it is I. I shall willingly accept whatever punishment you deem appropriate."

The woman sighed, relaxing slightly. "No one is getting punished until I know what happened."

"That is fair," he conceded.

As he told the story, his father watched his mother's face with growing amusement. She was fighting to seem composed, but he knew she just wanted to sit and laugh at the absurdity of how five such young people (at this point, they had all accepted that Holly might as well be around Juliet's age from how looked and sometimes acted as if she were) could make such a very large mess.

To be totally honest, no individual of the group was to blame. Myles and Beckett deserved most of it, but the other three hadn't exactly been unwilling participants.

The day started off predictably enough. Everyone met early in the kitchen for breakfast. Angeline left quickly to begin on the laundry list of tasks she needed to complete before 6 pm. Butler went to do a round on the grounds as Artemis Senior decided to start on his list as well. Holly was weary of Artemis and Juliet was bouncing ideas off of them about where she could hide weapons on her costume. Myles and Beckett were arguing over something, which was normal and thus ignored by their fellow diners. This, as it turns out, was a mistake.

By noon, the manor was filled with the largest crowd to occupy the grounds in almost a decade. The entire ground floor was transformed into a beautiful winter garden, complete with trees, flowers, ice sculptures and several fountains. All of the exits to outside gardens were softly lit along paths so guests could fresh air or privacy if they so desired. The kitchen was filled with tantalizing smells as dishes were prepared. Tables and chairs lined walls, large strings of lights hung on every window, Christmas trees of every color, shape and size littered the floor and stood in corners. Crystal twinkled over head, sending light in every direction. The band and DJ set up in the far corner of the main ballroom as stations for food and liquor were strategically placed.

Everyone in and around the manor was triple checked for security. The DJ's playlist had been approved by Holly and Angeline. Juliet had heard back from all but a handful of the guests on the list. Angeline was still making changes and directing the flow bouquets, decorations and food. While Artemis Senior tried to keep up with his wife and Butler stood glaring at passers-by, Juliet, Holly and Artemis hid in the third floor drawing room. This room, which was unused by the Fowls for at least two decades until the birth of the twins, had been turned into a game room. Two large plasma TV's faced multiple comfortable couches, tables and shelves filled with games and toys of every imaginable type.

They had been in the drawing room, Holly and Juliet playing card games while Artemis worked on his laptop, when Myles and Beckett came in the door looking thoroughly distraught.

Juliet immediately asked them what was wrong.

"We made a splash…" Beckett said quietly, glancing at his brother.

"We made much more than a splash, actually. A small flood would be more of an accurate assessment," Myles told his horrified audience.

Artemis was the first to react. "What happened, Myles?" he asked quietly. Juliet was trying desperately to ignore visions of Angeline Fowl's beautiful ball being ruined by these two small terrors while Holly just put her chin on her hands, unsurprised.

"Well," Beckett tried to start, "we were…" He stopped, looking at his brother with a pleading expression.

"We were attempting a harmless prank. It, well, it got a tad out of hand." Myles spoke clearly, but his eyes were on the floor.

Every face in the room fell.

"Continue," Artemis prompted.

Myles let out an audible sigh. "We were going to put a harmless, temporary dye in the water for the downstairs washrooms so the guests tonight would have different colored hands all evening. It would have just dyed their hands, perhaps their faces if they tried to wash them. But no clothing or decorations would have changed, and the affect only lasted about ten minutes. We were going to put blue and green in the women's bathrooms and purple and orange in the men's."

Their audience sat silently for a few seconds before Holly and Juliet simultaneously burst into laughter. Artemis glared at the girls while trying to maintain his composure. Truthfully, he knew how amusing his brothers' little joke would have been, but he knew his mother would have been mortified if anything went wrong at her ball. He glanced at his brothers who were looking hopefully at the giggling females for support.

"Where did your plan go wrong?" Artemis asked simply, hoping that the boys were just making a big deal about nothing. Perhaps one of them spilled a fish tank in one of the labs. That was easy enough to get cleaned up, even if the experiments were ruined.

"In the laundry room. We were trying to add the dye when something went wrong and now it's spraying water on the wall and we can't make it stop."

"Then why, pray tell, are both of you completely dry," Juliet, who had filled in for the nanny many times, asked.

Beckett answered this time. "We were almost out of the room when it happened. We heard a boom and turned around and there was water spraying everywhere."

"And you did nothing to try and stop it?" Holly sounded shocked.

"Well of course not," Myles replied. "We know when we've lost control of a situation. We had not planned for this to happen; we had no idea what to do or even where to begin. That is why we are here."

"So the laundry room is flooding as we speak," Artemis questioned.

"Exactly," replied Beckett.

Juliet cursed and ran out the door, Holly on her heels. Artemis moved with more grace, but made sure to grab both boys on his way out.

The scene was not as bad as they expected. The water was less than an inch deep and Juliet quickly shut off the supply to the busted pipe. Once water had stopped shooting at the wall, everyone surveyed the damage, each grateful that the mess could be contained. They were all soaking wet from head to toe, but there was no more water making its way unchecked into the manor, and they had foiled the twins' plan.

This, of course, was until Artemis noticed something that his brothers had obviously missed. The pipe that exploded was water being sent away from the main pipes, going out towards the gardens.

"Where did you add the dye?" Artemis asked quietly.

"Over there," Beckett said, pointing to a metal container about the same height as the twins. It had a removable top and opened to reveal several canisters of mild chemicals that were intended to maintain the water quality as the liquid moved through the centuries-old plumbing. Artemis noticed that two of the canisters had recently had their caps removed. He scanned the pipes leading from these canisters and realized with dread that those pipes were still intact. Artemis looked back at the broken pipe, realizing that it had not been connected to a tainted canister. All of the dyes were still in the water system.

Myles realized this a few seconds later which was marked by his quiet laughter. His twin looked curiously at him. In reply he simply said, "We did it," and kept laughing.

Beckett grinned as he realized how much trouble they were all in, but then again, the plan had worked.

As Artemis met Angeline's eyes twenty minutes later in the family's private sitting room, he tried to see how anyone could have actually stopped the twins' little plot. He found no way it was possible unless someone had been specifically told to keep the twins out of trouble and apparently the nanny had been asked to help with preparation for the evening.

Angeline was torn. She knew that it would be amusing to see all of the Ball's guests frazzled at strangely-colored hands, but it was easy enough to have an announcement that the dye was a harmless prank. Angeline didn't like the idea of people saying that anything had gone wrong with the party, but it never hurt to remind people of what her sons were capable of doing.

"As it stands," she began, "we do not have time to fix the boys' prank. The four of you," she pointed to everyone but Holly, "are to clean up the mess in the laundry room and make sure no permanent damage is done to the building or wiring. You will also arrange for the piping to that part of the garden is fixed before the night is up. There are fountains that need to be working this evening. Holly, you may help if you wish, but I will not ask you to do so. However, I know of your independence streak and I do not have time to argue with you."

With that, the Fowl adults walked out of room, leaving five very confused, dripping people.

"That's it?" Holly asked, ignoring Angeline's final comments. They were true, she reasoned.

"Mistress Fowl has more problems to take care of than this right now. Any other day and we'd be in serious trouble." Juliet looked relieved. She had been expecting much worse.

"Let's go get the water cleaned up," Holly said, standing.

"You must be kidding," Artemis replied.

"Of course not. Your mother told us to do it, so we need to do it."

"But," Artemis argued, "I highly doubt she expects us to actually do it. That's what we have servants for."

Holly gaped. "Don't sound so prissy," she accused him, giving him a soft punch on the shoulder. "You act as if you've never mopped up a spill before."

Artemis met her eyes squarely. Juliet laughed.

"No, Holly," Juliet said, "I'm afraid he has never cleaned. We don't really allow him in the kitchen at all, let alone to the cleaning supplies. He might break something valuable with a broom handle." Her tone was serious, but her eyes twinkled with mirth

Holly hung her head. "Well, you're about to learn how to clean up after your brothers. It's something all siblings should learn at some point." She grabbed Artemis by the arm and dragged him towards the door.

"Oh this is going to be funny to watch," Juliet told the twins.

"Yes," Myles agreed.

They got up and followed Holly and Artemis towards the stairs, grinning as Holly openly made fun of Artemis, again.

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><p><strong>AN:<strong>  
><strong>Too crazy? Too random?<strong>  
><strong>Let me know in a review.<strong>

**Also, tell me what you'd like to see happen! Any ideas you may have are always welcome. The story's nowhere near finished yet! :)**

**Thanks again!**

**BQB**


	20. Laughter

Hai. Don't kill me. I'm trying to get back into the fanfic world. I've even got a friend who is supposed to make sure I write.

So. This is a replacement of the original chapter 20. The first part begins the same, but without the weird emergency thing.

Several thousand miles below ground, Foaly almost fell out of his specially-designed chair as he watched the footage of the great Artemis Fowl successfully making an even bigger mess of the simple act of mopping up water.

As he wiped tears from his eyes and tried to catch his breath (and balance), he grabbed a carrot and decided to place a very important phone call.

Mulch was not surprised to be hearing from the centaur, in fact, he was amused that the call was so late in the day. He had expected Foaly to be making at least hourly check-ins on the progress of this rather important project.

"What do you want, horsey?" growled Mulch.

Deciding that watching Artemis make a slip-n-slide in his manor's laundry room was enough entertainment for the moment, Foaly ignored the little dwarf's jibe.

"I am just checking on your progress, Mulch. Can't afford for you to go messing things up at this stage just because you got the munchies and went after another innocent rabbit or something." Okay, so maybe Foaly couldn't totally ignore the jibe…

"Nah, all the wildlife is safe from me," said Mulch, who at this particular moment was picking his rather large teeth with a turkey bone.

"The mistress of the house knows how much we dwarves love meat, so she's kept us well fed. She seems totally on board for this whole thing."

As Foaly rolled his eyes at Mulch and silently thanked Mistress Fowl for, once again, being prepared for anything, he continued.

"So how is the project progressing?"

"Getting right down to business, I see," drawled Mulch, a pout crossing his features. "That's no fun."

"Well, this is the biggest mess we have ever gotten ourselves into as a society, including being forced underground in the first place, or at least that's how the Council sees it. You know good and well that if Artemis hadn't been able to provide solid evidence and swear his own existence into collateral that this would never have been able to happen. Actually," he added as almost an afterthought, "the Council still hopes that somehow this will mess up and they will finally get everything the human has."

'Not that I'm going to mention that it would be breaking their own laws to do it…' he added to himself.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know the risks," growled Mulch, smashing the turkey bone into smithereens between his molars. "Do you have any idea how high the security clearance was to get on this project? And they requested me specifically. I still had to get things probed that I never want to think about getting probed again. Ever."

"Yeah, well, that's the price we all pay to work with Artemis. Somehow, he gets around every law we bothered to put into place and still gets his way." 'And,' Foaly thought, 'the most eligible bachelorette in all of Lower Elements…well,' he snickered, 'only because I married Cymballine already.'

"Are we finished?" Mulch asked, getting annoyed. "There is a large bowl of curry that I want to sample. And by 'sample,' I mean totally devour." Good curry was hard to come by in the Lower Elements, and when Mulch mentioned this, Angeline had several large orders placed for curry deliveries per week. The dwarves had decided that any human willing to be that generous while her estate was being totally wrecked was okay by them.

Foaly whinnied, rolling his eyes. "Yes Mulch, we are finished. Go indulge your inner glutton. Just make sure to keep the project on time."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know," replied Mulch. "I've got too much gold on the line to mess this up. And what did you mean, inner glutton?"

Artemis was not in a great mood. Not only was he taunted for being unable to wield a basic home cleaning tool, he also managed to fall flat on his bum several times during the process. After the water was mostly cleaned up, and the damage to the pipes repaired, Angeline sent them all up stairs to, "Stay out of the way and not break anything before the ball."

They were all okay with those orders. They were all soaking wet, sweaty and Artemis had even managed to scruff up his manicure.

Once they dropped the twins off with their nanny, who was reassigned to her original duties after the twins' little debacle.

Juliet decided that everyone might as well start getting ready for the party. She needed to be ready early to help ferry people to the ballroom. Holly's ensemble was going to take a decent amount of time to put together, especially the hair and makeup.

Holly was actually happy that her human shape had longer hair. It wasn't anywhere near as glorious as Juliet's blond locks, but it was a bit past her shoulders and still auburn. Artemis wouldn't admit it, but he found a decent amount of pleasure running his fingers through it.

Everyone went to their respective rooms, Holly still chuckling at Artemis' pitiful performance at cleaning up the water.

Once the two got to Artemis' suite, he dropped into a fluffy arm chair and glared. He considered feeling sorry for himself, which was an odd thing in itself. Self-pity wasn't Artemis' style.

He decided on a different tactic. He decided to pout at the still giggling Holly, and slowly get up, heading in her direction. Faster than she thought he could move, he had her by the waist and pulled her in close.

She stopped giggling immediately. In fact, she stopped breathing.

"I know Juliet told us to start getting ready for the party," he whispered in her ear. "But I think we have some time to spare."

He brushed his lips on her neck, right below her ear. She began to nod enthusiastically. They had plenty of time, as far as she was concerned. He pulled her onto the chair with him, putting her on the armrest. From that angle, he used his lips to make her forget about wanting to laugh at him.


	21. Shower Sentiments

**My apologies for the long time between updates. I'm trying, I promise.  
>This one's a personal twist. <strong>

**Also, apologies for spelling Camballine's name wrong. :(**

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><p>She was top of her class, no matter what class she happened to take. She was smart, fast and could hit a moving target at 300 meters.<p>

It didn't seem to matter how good she was, though. No matter what she did, her one, ONE, mistake would always haunt her.

Her first flight in a pod. She was so confident. She sat in the pilot's seat, feeling the gears maneuver to her Elfin measurements. If she was a betting fairy, the hot-shot part of her would have bet against her targets. Little did she know that she would totally blow her first trial in a pilot's seat, landing close enough to Commander Vinyaya for her to use the phrase "through a gap in your teeth" when referencing how well Holly could fly by the time she tested to get out of the academy.

And even less did she know that she would, throughout training, end up beating every record for her class. By graduation, she had beaten almost every record held for fly-boy tactics, except for, of course, Julius Root. At the time, Holly Short would have never thought that she would have been able to beat Root's numbers.

Over her years on the force, however, she pulled it off. Not that she should have, she broke about a dozen rules each time. She only managed it once or twice, but it was enough for Foaly's computers (and her commanding officers) to notice.  
>As of current numbers, she also held the fastest overall average fly through a magma shoot from Haven to the Surface. Holly didn't like going slow.<p>

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><p>These thoughts and memories did nothing to comfort her as she let the hot, pure Irish spring water of the Fowl manor wash over her person. In fact, these thoughts brought her nothing but doubt…Surly Root would be furious with her for…well…she was reluctant to admit the exact reason, even if she could give words to this mess.<p>

She just tried to relax, letting the water wash away the details and overall aftereffects.

Holly relaxed her neck muscles, letting the stress of the day and situation flow away with the water. Admittedly, she didn't have a clue how she was going to react to the situation…if she decided to react at all. Maybe she would just see this vacation through to the last day, and then make a decision.

She laughed to herself in the steam of clear Irish water…as if she'd ever been one to just let other people and influences make her decisions for her.

She needed to do SOMETHING and she knew it. But what could she do?

She closed her eyes and tried to look at the situation through her police trained eyes. It was a problem and needed a solution. She needed to find that solution.

She mulled the options over in her head. There were enough to make it an annoying venture.

She could put a stop to this entire mess. All it would take was one sentence, Artemis would respect her decision.

But…she forced herself to admit it…she didn't want to stop. Arty was the only person who was intelligent enough to be interesting, but good enough to know that sometimes she was not going to follow his speeches (she made a pointed thought at a certain centaur…). Arty was gentler with her than she would ever have thought a creature could be with another creature. He made her shiver with pleasure in ways that she couldn't even imagine, and every encounter was new and exciting all over again. Just looking at him across the room while they read or did work made her blush.

Then again, he was human. She didn't think there were laws against that, but she knew it was just because the Council never thought a fairy would be so treacherous.

But did that matter? Yes, of course it mattered. They would never be able to have children…

Holly stopped dead. She was NOT thinking of things that insane. She was not thinking about having a family with Artemis Fowl. No, no, no. This couldn't be happening…right?

She hated having so many options. She would have given anything to be in an actual tactical situation: only a few ways it can go, and rules to dictate how it's done. She sighed, Foaly would die of laughter if he ever knew that Holly Short was wishing that she gave a care about rules.

She shook her short hair away from her face. She needed to get out of the shower and start getting ready for the party, and she knew it.

She slowly turned off the water, stepping out of the shower to grab an incredibly soft, fluffy towel. She dried off, then put some lotion on her fairy ears. Even if they weren't pointy all the time this vacation, they were still getting dry from the humid-less Irish air.

She took another very deep breath and traced the rune on her wrist. As her body added inches to itself, she just let herself enjoy the magic.

It was an interesting experience, shapeshifting. It felt totally different going from big to small than small to big again. Getting bigger was like stretching all your muscles at once, but in a gentle way like the exercises humans had finally discovered and made popular, yoga.

She let her held breath out when she was human-sized. She hadn't realized that she'd held the breath that long. She shook her head. She was being silly and she knew it. She needed to just enjoy the evening without over thinking anything.

After putting on a light shift, Holly stopped in front of the bathroom door. Everything on the other side of that door could, and likely would, changer her life. Well, she though, continue to change it. And I'm going to let it, she told herself.

Just in time, as it happened, because at that precise moment Juliet began to pound on the door demanding that Holly come out of there and come get ready for the party.

Holly smiled and opened the door, knowing that the gesture signified more than just her willingness to leave the bathroom, it signified her willingness to see where this thing went.

"Thank God!," exclaimed Juliet, plainly out of patience with the world. "C'mon, Holly! We have to get both of us ready before the ambassadors start coming in from the capitol!"

Holly was swept from Arty's room in a blur of almost dry blond hair, but Holly caught a glimpse of Artemis as she was quickly evicted from the area.

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><p><strong>What do you guys want Arty to be thinking at that moment? I've got a few ideas, but I want to hear yours! Let me know in the comments!<strong>


	22. A Little Lipstick

**Hello my lovlies,**

**I hope you are all doing well and enjoying your holidays. I'm trying to get this story wrapped up in the near future; I've become annoyed with myself for leaving it hanging. **

**Please leave me comments, or I may end up deciding that it's not worth it to upload the rest. I know how it ends, and I enjoy putting it together, but if no one is reading it, I don't see a reason to keep uploading it.**

**Hopefully I will have another chappie up within the next 24 hours. I've already got it started.**

**a/n- I own nothing.**

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><p>Juliet struggled for over half an hour with Holly before outright declaring that if the fairy-looking-human for the evening didn't sit still, she would just have to either give up or tie the smaller woman down in her chair. The threat of being physically attached to a chair while Juliet did whatever she wanted with her hair was enough to make Holly sit still. She wasn't calm, not at all. If anyone asked, Holly would lie and say she wasn't the least bit nervous about the Ball. But, if truth be told, she was highly considering making a quick escape to Haven by the time Juliet was fixing her costume. Not even over two decades of LEP experience could prepare an Officer for a giant Ball with over two hundred humans in attendance.<p>

Once Holly's appearance was all ready but the face-mask (which Holly still hadn't seen), Juliet ran out the door of their powder room to deal with some emergency for which Angeline had requested assistance. Holly was left to wander around the lovely room, complete with closets, dressers, mirrors and every makeup, hair and overall appearance product on the Surface, or so Holly guessed. She couldn't help but to admire the costume and Juliet's amazing job on her hair and makeup. There were ringlets everywhere on her head, accented with black and red ribbons that cascaded through the strands like they were part of her head. It had taken several minutes for Holly to get adjusted to seeing a flash of light from the corners of her eyes whenever she blinked; Juliet had placed incredibly long fake lashes on her eyes that had small rhinestones on the very tips. Holly had to admit, the overall look was breathtaking. She usually wasn't one for lipstick, but the precise colour of red that Juliet had chosen was simply perfect for the shape of her lips, the shade of her skin and the red of the costume.

She was spinning (again) and admiring the gleam of the silver web design on the cape and skirt when she heard the door click closed. She stopped facing the door, enjoying the rustle of the skirts as they followed her spinning path.

Artemis stood there, the look on his face that Holly was quickly coming to associate only with her. There was a twinkle in his eyes that made her blush. She looked down and smoothed out her clothes, even though they sat perfectly on their own.

He slowly walked toward her and she noticed that he was holding a large box. She nearly rolled her eyes, but remembered, just in time, that she had resigned herself to taking everything as it came. She stood, waiting as he came closer, her breath coming faster. She wondered if she would keep reacting like this every time she saw him, but she decided that she didn't really mind. She took a moment to appreciate the cut of his tuxedo. It very clearly showed the muscles he had spent the last two years creating. He wasn't bulky by any means, but his shoulders and arms had good definition, and his waist and hips were something she quite enjoyed looking at (she forced away the thoughts of what those things felt like under her fingers).

Artemis was having similar problems. While he had seen her in the costume the day before, it was without all the bells and whistles that Juliet had put into place for the actual Ball. Holly was practically glowing. With the additions, even her humanoid form looked magical. He hoped she wouldn't freak out too badly if anyone at the party said something to that effect.

He noticed the look on her face when she noticed the box he was holding. He smiled at her and set the box on one of the many small tables.

He walked closer to her, snaking his hands around her waist and pulling her forward. "It is a shame that Juliet would kill me if I mussed up your makeup," he said, putting his face towards hers. "I would quite like to kiss you right now."

She grinned and shivered, greatly wanting the same thing, but knowing he was right about the younger Butler. Holly had been given very strict instructions to do nothing that would even possibly ruin all the hard work Juliet had put into her costume.

"She's right, you know. She put a lot of time and effort into making me look perfect," Holly responded.

"And perfect you are," Artemis said, gently kissing the top of her head, careful not to smash her hair. Holly blushed fiercely, closing her eyes to gather her thoughts after such a strong statement of affection. 'Mudboy (man!) is going to drive me mad!' she thought. Then she smiled, taking a moment to accept and enjoy the little tingles that went from her crown to her toes at what he had said.

"So what's in the box?" she asked, normal attitude back in her voice.

He smiled, only partly pulling away, guiding her with him. "You will just have to look and see," he said with a smile.

She half-rolled her eyes at him, then stepped towards the table. The box was plain black, rectangle with a set-on top. It was about two hand lengths long, one tall and deep.

She carefully removed the top and set it next to the box. Inside were several smaller boxes.

She started with one of the smaller ones. Velvet outside, she guessed correctly that it would be jewelry. Black-painted gold with onyx studs, surrounded by small black diamonds supported a leaf thin spider web design of more black-gold. She just starred at them. After blinking quite a few times, she just looked up at him and said, "I guess there are perks to crazy billionaire boyfriends," with a wink.

Yet again, she managed to surprise him. Twice at once, which was enough to render even him speechless. First off, she didn't try to tell him it was too much. Second, and he wasn't totally sure he hadn't misheard her, she had just called him her…her boyfriend. Artemis was a bit shell-shocked on that one. He hadn't expected her to outwardly admit any kind of name or title to what they were doing any time soon, if ever. Yet her she had, and easily at that. Once Artemis had collected his thoughts, Holly was opening another box with quite a mischievous grin on her face.

"What did you just say?" Artemis asked, pulling her to her and taking the second box out of hands.

"Did you not hear me?" she asked, still mischievous, eyes twinkling.

"Oh I heard you, I just want you to say it again." He spun her around, putting his face right next to hers, foreheads and noses touching.

"I want to hear you say it again, Holly," he whispered.

'D'arvit, I can't breathe when he does that!' she thought, swallowing hard. 'But if he wants to play like this, I can play too.'

She grabbed his forearms and pulled him down, stopping when her lips were on his ears.

"I said, it's quite fun having a crazy billionaire boyfriend," she whispered, lips moving against his skin. And just to be mean, she nipped his earlobe before dancing out of his grip, chuckling.

Artemis' brain seemed to be failing him entirely. She had just claimed him as her…it sounded so childish, yet so very solid and wonderful…boyfriend. And why did she have to do that to his ear? That was just unfair.

He realized that he was still bent over where she had pulled him down a moment before. He shook his head and straightened, pretending to fix his perfectly pressed tuxedo jacket. When he could see straight, Holly was grinning unashamedly at him. 'Hm,' he thought, 'it really is a good thing that no one is keeping count of who wins these little battles. I am afraid that I will be losing sooner rather than later.' He smiled, not minding that one bit.

Still grinning, Holly reached for the box that Artemis had removed from her hands moments before.

Inside, she found two bright rings. One, silver, had a black opal the size of a robin's egg. The other, again black-covered gold, was a patchwork of garnets, black diamonds, and white diamonds surrounding a central flat, engraved piece of gold. Fairy gold, she realized, with a family crest. Upon closer inspection, she realized that it was her grandfather's, Cupid's, crest. This time she looked at him like he had lost his good mind.

"Where in, on or below the world did you even FIND this?" she asked, somewhere between awed and exasperated.

He laughed outright at her reaction. "Holly," he said, "is there anything in this world you think I cannot find if I decide to do so?"

'Good point,' she thought. "But still," she continued to argue, "where did you find this? How did you even know about it? The People haven't used seals in centuries, and my grandfather wasn't exactly the most reliable of fairies. He lost his before my mother was even a century old."

"That is true," he agreed, "the original seal is no longer in existence."

She looked at him skeptically, one eyebrow raised.

"This is not actually an original, it is a replica. You can thank Foaly for the pattern; I created the actual seal and placed it into this custom ring. Oh, they also have just a touch of magic, courtesy of No1, and can shrink to a more fairy-friendly size if you want them to. You just need to say the keyword he programmed into them."

She just starred at this point. Really, this was getting out of hand.

She opened her mouth to protest so much magic and money being spent on her and Artemis held up his hand, "What did you just say, not five minutes ago? I thought you were going to enjoy having a crazy billionaire boyfriend. This kind of thing is a side effect of such a situation." The grin on Artemis' face made Holly want to smack him just for being correct.

"So, my grandfather's crest-" "Your family crest, actually." Artemis interrupted, "It was not just Cupid's personal crest, it is your mother's family crest, and thus, yours. Well, one of them. I could not actually locate one for your father's line, though I did try. It seems that fairies decided to melt most of theirs down rather than keep them."

"I am aware of this, Arty. That's why I was so surprised. I'm sure that when I have room in my head to think about this, I'm going to flip out. This is actually really cool. Since the crests became rare, they are considered a specialty. For all of our historical records, not many families kept track of that piece of their heritage." She finally stopped rambling and looked at Artemis, smiling. "This is really wonderful, thank you!" She threw her arms around him as the knot in his stomach loosened up. From how the conversation was going, he was concerned that she may not have liked it.

She put the rings on, she had already put the earrings on, while Artemis removed the final, largest box. She was already wearing the black-widow necklace that was a piece of the original design, so she guessed that the box must contain her mask. She was not disappointed.

Holding the box in his left hand, he lifted the hinged top with his right, holding the box out to Holly.

She gasped, she couldn't help it. She had thought that the box must have been too big for the mask, but she was wrong. The mask wasn't only designed to cover her face; it created a tiara-like shape above her forehead. The whole thing was silver, web-like, but sturdy. Thicker lines around the yes and outside edges, the spikes of the top housing what had to be diamonds. Tilting her head, she saw more shimmering in strategic places, like the outside edges of the eyes, where more jewels were placed. It was not flat, in fact, when she picked it up to set it against her face, she found that it fit her humanoid form perfectly. She knew she could blame Artemis for that. He would never put her in anything that was not perfectly shaped to her body (whichever one). There was no magic in this piece, just master craftsmanship. She was incredibly proud of the work he had done to make it. She wasn't sure how she knew that he had created this with his own two hands, but she did.

The sides simply hooked around her ears, instead of needing a string that would mess up her hair. In fact, the strands of hair that Juliet had sculpted to fall in and around her face fell perfectly through open spots in the design. She smiled, knowing now that Juliet also had a hand in the design of this piece of her costume. She wasn't remotely surprised, just amused.

She hadn't quite gotten up the guts to look at Arty yet. She did now, and she swallowed hard.

The look on his face was a mixture of awe, appreciation and, she hesitated to admit it, love.

She knew if she cried that Juliet would end her existence for ruining her makeup, and she also knew that if she didn't cry, she would need to kiss that stubborn, amazing, crazy person in front of her. Weighing her options, she decided that lipstick would be easier to fix than her eyes, face and eyelashes. She didn't really care if Arty got some red on his face, it would wash off.

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><p><strong>Hope you all liked it. Remember to comment!<strong>

**Peace, Love and Dolphins,**

**BQB**


	23. The Ball

**Two in one day! WooHoo!**

**I can't tell if this one is rushed, but I checked it over once. I will go over it again tomorrow (it's late here). Hope you all enjoy. **

**a/n- I own nothing.**

After the pair had gotten settled and ready for the actual party, they apparently had some down time. Juliet had come in to check on Holly and Artemis and took less than five seconds to see that some of Holly's appearance needed to be fixed. Holly grumbled, she thought she had done a decent job of cleaning up the slightly messed up lipstick on her face, but apparently Juliet thought otherwise. All-in-all, Holly and Artemis were just grateful that Juliet waited until after they had gotten calmed down to come barreling in to ask why they were taking so long. While Juliet cursed under her breath about having to redo something that should have already been done, Artemis got a few moments to look back and commit the previous minutes to his permanent memory.

_He hadn't expected Holly's reaction. He could tell she was struggling with something, but he didn't have a clear idea of what it was until she closed the five steps between them, threw her arms around him and kissed him with a force that made his head swim in wonderful ways. He responded eagerly, throwing caution to the wind when he picked her up and set her on the table next to them. She squeaked when she landed on the table, but didn't argue. Instead, she carefully removed the silver mask, placed it next to her on the table, and wrapped her legs around him, pulling him even closer. She was careful not to move from his lips (she didn't want Juliet to kill both of them), but she had fun with his lips. _

_He could feel hear heart racing through the pieces of bare skin that he touched. He was starting to sweat slightly; the effort of not ruining both of their costumes was driving him almost as mad as she was. _

His heartbeat rose as he remembered how difficult it was to pull away from that lovely creature. It seemed, however, that they picked a good time to separate, considering that Juliet had stormed in less than five minutes later.

By the time Artemis had wiped the smile off his face at the memory, Juliet had released Holly and was warning both them to keep their hands off each other until after the party. They smirked as she left, but they knew that Angeline would be very, very upset if Juliet harmed her son or her house guest, so they decided to play it safe.

While they waited for their turn to enter the ballroom, the pair wandered through some of the heated outside gardens the Angeline had set up for her guests. They sipped on juice and nibbled on pastries and fruit.

Holly was getting nervous. She hadn't seen the ballroom with all of the guests in it, so she didn't know what kind of crowd to expect. She didn't know how to act, what to say, where to go or what to do. She actually had absolutely no idea what was going to happen once she went into that room. She halted when she realized this, causing Artemis to stop and look at her with concern.

"Are you worried about the party?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes, not even surprised that he guessed her thoughts.

"Yes," she replied. "What if I do something wrong? I don't know what to say, I don't know any of these people, I'm not even human. How will I manage in that big crowd?"

Artemis smiled, hearing the concern in her voice and knowing that she would need gentle handling to get her through this bout of nerves.

"Holly, have we even discussed the plans for this evening?" he asked gently.

"No," Holly pouted.

"Well then, we shall do so now." He steered her over to a nook in the outdoor gardens with a small heater and a bench as well as ample light.

"First of all, if you do not wish to stay for the whole ball, you do not need to do so. I will ask that you accompany me for the entrance, but that is the only thing I will request that you agree to. Anything after that is completely your choice." He paused, knowing that she would have something to say about this new piece of information.

She looked up at him, her face suspicious. "What kind of entrance are you talking about?"

If it had been anyone but Artemis, she would have said that he shifted uncomfortably. Artemis Fowl II does not shift, however, and she knew this. Which did nothing for her nerves or suspicions.

"What entrance, Arty?" her voice sounded almost pleading.

"Since this Ball is being held at our Manor, mother, father, the twins and I will be given what is called Grand Entrances. We are not the only people who will enter in this manner, but we will be the last, and it will be right before the stroke of midnight, to kickoff the party."

Holly just blinked at him, knowing that if she didn't say anything, he would keep talking.

Artemis sighed softly, knowing she wanted more information.

"A few moments before the bells chime the start of the new year, all of the guests will be gathered in the main hall. The music will stop, and the emcee will announce the family. We will enter, first the twins, then you and me, then my parents. We will ascend the Grand Staircase, stopping on the landing halfway down the stairs. There, my mother and father will officially welcome our guests, with the four of us younger people standing off to the side. The countdown will begin at 20 seconds before midnight; there will be a large digital clock displaying the descending numbers. The crowd, and my parents, will count down with the clock. At midnight, streamers, balloons, glitter and all manner of celebratory memorabilia will rain down on the guests and the party shall continue. Your expression indicates that you are uncomfortable with this arrangement?" He said it as a question, but he knew he was right, as usual.

Holly was trying not to look completely horrified. "You want me to do what?!" she quietly screeched.

Artemis looked sheepish. Artemis, sheepish. Holly thought that if things in her world didn't stop acting so unusual, she was just going to go find a comfortable spot to go and hide until she could go underground and stay there for the rest of her existence.

She shook her head and got to the more pressing matter at hand. She didn't like attention. She hated dealing with reporters and questioners when something went wrong (or right) in the LEP. She would much rather just buzz her problems away with her buzz baton. She certainly didn't know how to schmooze with all of the important people who would be in that room. She realized that she hadn't really had time to think about how she was going to get through the party.

Apparently Artemis realized this as well. From the look on his face, he had followed her thought process and was prepared for what needed to be said next.

"Please, Holly, this party means a lot to my parents and it would mean the world to me if you would be on my arm as I walk in."

It took all of her will not to whine about hating crowds when he cleared his throat and added, "Also, my parents think that if you are up there with us, the twins will actually behave for the whole show. We know they will be good on the walk down the stairs, and they know to be still and act like gentlemen for the speeches, but let's face it, without Juliet or their nanny, they are going to be fidgeting before they are released. They will not risk upsetting you, however. They enjoy your presence far too much."

Now Holly outright glared. "That's bribery and you know it," she hissed.

Artemis grinned, "Yes, my beautiful, wonderful elfin woman, it is bribery. I am quite good at bribery, if you will recall." He closed the inches gap between them on the bench and kissed her temple.

Holly sighed. She was starting to highly enjoy these affectionate moments.

"Please," Artemis pleaded once again. He pulled back and looked at her, slightly more serious.

"Holly, I am a young man, a bachelor to most of these people. I have no intention of remaining a bachelor, however, as I think you are coming to realize. I want you, and I want the world to know it."

Holly took a deep breath, she hadn't realized that she needed to breathe. He meant that, and she knew it.

Well, she thought, what do I say to that?

"I…okay, Arty. But if I trip, I am going to pound you into a small ball that even Foaly won't be able to fix." This made him chuckle. "Deal," he agreed. "And it is nearly time to take our places. Mother will be thrilled that you have agreed. She is determined that you accept your place as 'honored guest,' despite my warnings that you might protest."

Holly rolled her eyes and laughed, getting up and straightening her skirts. Artemis rose as well, brushing imaginary dust off his lapel. Holly shook her head at him, and paused in surprise when he put his arm out towards her, bowing.

"M'lady," he said, smiling, "I believe I am to escort you to the party."

She popped an eyebrow at him and said, "I thought I told you no more yuppy-overly-romantic-stuff. I really did have enough of that with Orion."

He smiled, standing upright again, "Fair," he agreed as he slid his arm through the crook of hers. "But I will be escorting you and I will be treating you like a lady."

Holly outright snorted at this. "And what do you treat me like normally? A troll?"

He paused for a moment in false contemplation, "Oh more like a goblin, I would imagine. Trolls are far too large." He winked at her and they headed inside.

They finally headed to bed around 3 am, exhausted but happy. The whole event was a blur to Holly. She could clearly remember being struck with momentary fear when she got her first look at the crowd below them as she and the Fowl family gathered at the top of the staircase. Artemis, sensing her worries, leaned in and quietly reassured her. "Just smile, they only know that you are a beautiful woman, and my guest. The emcee is not even using your name, just calling you my guest. I guessed that you would be more comfortable that way. And since I have no intention of letting you wander from my side, it should not be an issue."

She smiled, happy, for once, to let Artemis take care of the thinking and executing of this evening's events.

She knew she had to hold on to his arm with a fairly strong grip so she wouldn't wobble from nerves, but she made it to the landing. She barely noticed the hush that came over the crowd when the spotlight landed on her and Artemis. She never noticed the twinkle in Artemis' eyes or how he stood, if possible, even straighter and more proud when the crowd was awed at her. He knew they would be, and he was ecstatic that they enjoyed her beauty as much as he did.

The twins were exceedingly well behaved (this, it turns out, was due to their glee that the colored water prank worked, and their fear that one of the guests might get angry about it, which none of them seemed inclined to do).

They danced, mingled, laughed and drank one another in. They mostly danced. Artemis spent a good deal of time teaching Holly the steps to many of the human dances, and Holly, in turn, taught Artemis a few dances she had learned in Haven. The crowd watched, amused, as the pair went back and forth showing one another the steps.

Once they got upstairs, they were both a bit giddy on exhaustion, something Artemis had never experienced and Holly seemed to find hilarious. They had to lean on one another to get all the way into Artemis' suite, and then they had a very interesting time trying to get Holly's costume off. Artemis tried to be sexy, he really did, but the second time he stumbled away from her and giggled while trying to get the ties on her skirt to come undone, they both decided that they should just concentrate on getting to bed without injury. It took several minutes, but eventually Holly was in just the body suit and she went into the bathroom to change into pajamas. Artemis took off his jacket, vest and button up and unfolded the bed for Holly. She came back into the main room in her normal form, happily rubbing her pointy ears. It seemed she had missed them when they were gone. By the time Artemis was in his night clothes, Holly could barely keep her eyes open. She was sitting on the bed, getting mildly impatient and wanting to sleep.

Artemis grinned at her, then walked over to his desk. Holly cocked her head, puzzled, until he pulled out yet another box. She debated getting annoyed with those things before remembering that she had promised herself that she would accept such things as they came.

Artemis walked over, grinning sleepily.

"This is not something you can use right now, but I think you will appreciate it tomorrow. It is not anything near as fancy as I have given you so far, but I think you will like it nonetheless."

She stuck her tongue at him (this seemed to be becoming a regular occurrence) and chided him for thinking that she cared about fancy things. He shrugged and handed her the box.

She pulled off the top and found a large jar. Removing the jar, she read the label, written in Gnomish. The jar contained mud from the Dead Sea, purified with Fairy technology and mixed with about a dozen of the finest vitamins and minerals, specially formulated for Elvish skin.

Once again, Holly just starred at Artemis. "Really?" she asked, slightly perplexed. This jar was worth about as much as gold to an elf; problematic and dry skin was a constant struggle of every fairy, it was just worse for sensitive elf ears.

"What?" Artemis asked, amused.

"How in the world would you even know about something like this? Why do you know anything about Elvish beauty habits and rituals?"

The look on his face reminded her, once again, never to underestimate Artemis' knowledge of totally random information. She shrugged. This stuff was miracle cream and something she never could have even afforded an ounce of on her Recon or Section 8 salary. She smiled. Crazy human, she thought.

"Oh good, there is a smile. I was worried for a moment there," he said.

"No you weren't," was her retort as she placed the jar and box on the bedside table. "Now, get into bed, I'm tired."  
>"Yes, Holly," he said, smiling. He turned off all the lights and crawled under the covers, still shocked and thrilled that this small, beautiful woman allowed him so close to her.<p>

He closed his eyes and breathed in her scent. Her hair was a mess from the curls that Juliet had put in earlier that evening, but the slight muss was endearing to Artemis. It even tickled his nose a bit.

'And,' he thought, 'I have at least another week with her. I am excited. I would have never thought I would be excited to spend that long of time with any one person, not until her. I will not be wasting this time, just in case it is all I get.' With that thought, one of actual and true appreciation of another being, Artemis fell asleep, arms around a woman he never could have dreamed up, but one that was totally perfect for him.

**Sappy ending, I know, but I like it. :)**

**Reviews = happy author. Happy author = more updates. You all know how this works.**

**Peace, Love and Dolphins,  
>BlueQueenBee<strong>


	24. Fear, Doubt and Determination

The next morning dawned quiet and gray. All of the household, even the tiwns, stayed abed longer than usual.

Holly awoke suddenly, the dream she was having faded quickly, but she could still fe affects of emotions she incurred during its playing…shame, fear, rejection. All emotions she had spent decades fighting while in the Academy, and later in the Recon Unit, then Section 8. She closed her eyes and counted her breaths until they came at a rate she could consider under control.

She lifted herself up on her elbows, careful not to wake the sleeping human beside her. She wondered, briefly, if she should have felt any kind of shock looking at him…he was human, after all, and a declared enemy of The People. She wondered if it was a sign of betrayal to her People that, even upon waking of dreams where members of her own species frightened her, she could awake next to this creature and feel no fear.

She sighed, looking at his face. She had to smile slightly, watching his features as he slept. There were no maniacal plans there, no crazy plans being made. He was just a person, albeit a human, sleeping calmly, peacefully. She had to wonder for a moment how anyone could hate such a creature, blatantly shoving memories of who he had been, what he had done, to the back of her mind.

Even those thoughts, thoughts that should make her shudder and run in fear, thoughts of her first encounter with him, they don't dent her current emotions.

She was different, she realized, than the fairy that he had kidnapped, even betrayed, to help his parents. And he was different, she had to admit, than the little boy who was so frightened, but so determined to help his family.

She could be scared of him, perhaps she even should be, but she wasn't.

She shifted slowly, turning on her back, looking at him more clearly.

"I should hate you," she thought, as she lightly touched his hair. "I should hate you and everything you have done to me and to my people, but I don't…I'm not sure I could."

She lay there, not sure of how long, touching his hair and face with a touch lighter than a feather. She didn't realize it, but she matched her breaths with his.

A thousand thoughts wandered through her mind as she watched his face.

She was a traitor, or was she? Fairies had always triumphed freedom above all else, and her grandfather had been the true champion of love…so was she really a traitor? This human, this man, had every reason to expose Fairy-kind, but had never done so. True, he had used them and their resources, but even below-ground gossip hoards gave him credit for wishing to have his family back in one piece…family was very important to Fairies. When the day was done, family was all there was, and fairies understood that very well. After centuries of being hunted, hated and killed, they learned to live by their bloodlines.

Holly had never experienced a real family, not truly. Her birth family was gone. The closest thing she had was in the police forces underground. Foaly, who accepted her. Root, who treated her like a daughter. Vinyaya, who gave her hope and credit, even if she didn't think she deserved it. Even Trouble, who seemed to have a different intention, but who still treated her like an equal.

Holly took a deep breath. She knew she needed to find somewhere quiet and alone to think. There was too much going on, too much to think about. She needed to talk to someone, if possible. She was sure that she could get a hold of Foaly, but she wasn't sure how to do so without raising suspicion with Artemis. She didn't want to make him worry. Why that was, she didn't know, she just knew she didn't want to make him distressed in any way…not after all he had done for her.

She slowly got out from under the blanket and padded to the bathroom. She needed to talk to someone, get some of the clouds out of her head, and she needed to figure out how to do it without rousing suspicion with Arty or his family. As she turned on the hot water in the shower, she closed her eyes, commanding herself to think. These thoughts were too heavy, she couldn't deal with them alone. She would come up with a solution…she had to.


	25. Well, that's one way to put it

**Hello my lovelies! Here's another chapter. I like it, and I hope you do as well. I'm pushing myself to complete this story, I've got the outline for the rest of the tale down on paper, and I think you will all be happy with the final product.**

**I have to thank all of you for joining me on this crazy ride, it's been a lot of fun, and I love to read all of your reviews and messages. (Seriously, I write every day I get a review, it's kind of a fun obsession with feedback as the primary perk. Love it.)  
><strong>

**So here's the next installment in the world of Arty and Holly. Hope y'all like it.**

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><p>Artemis stretched his arms, looking for the person thought would be there (he ignored the fact that he was so used to finding her in his bed every morning). One quick reach across his 1000-count sheets told him that he was in the bed alone. He allowed himself a moment to frown, a rare indulgence. He knew his first thoughts should have been pointed toward why she wasn't there, where she could be, ect…but for a moment, he wanted to savor the idea that he missed her. He was actually a bit upset that she was not in her bed, where she should have been.<p>

He looked down, smiling. Such a change she had created in him. He blamed her entirely, but not the kind of blame where one holds it against a person; more the kind of blame where you can't help but to thank them for the changes made that allow such blame.

He could have been mad, he could have been upset that he did not wake up to his world as it was expected to be; instead, he reminded himself the he was dealing with a huge inconstant, and that he loved her for her inconsistencies.

He rolled on his back, recalling the events of the previous night.

She had been so stunning in the costume he had helped design. He had never counted on his heart racing so much when he saw her. He knew that a good part of his reaction could be explained by the simple science of attraction- when he sees something that attracts him, his heart races, pulse rises, ect. He knew it could be attributed to simple science, but he had to admit that it might be, and probably was, more than that. He adored that little creature, no matter the form she took.

He admired her spirit, her spunk, stubbornness. He loved that she was loyal to a fault. He loved how awkward she was when she was complimented on anything other than her ability to captain a shuttle or shoot a gun…and how he loved to make her feel that particular kind of awkward. He loved to make her blush, make her squirm, make her just a bit uncomfortable with the level of attention she was receiving.

He had to admit it, he thought, as he lay on his back, spreading his arms out, accepting that he was the only one in the bed, he loved that little elf.

He wasn't sure how certain things would work out, physically, at least, or even environmentally. But he, Artemis Fowl II, was willing to put a bet in that somehow it would all work out.

He silently chided himself for his incredibly romantic notions. Three years ago, he would have thought himself too grounded to think of any situation in terms of romance…but then she got in his head…became a specimen he couldn't and would never want to explain. He still wasn't totally sure why this was, but he was past the point of asking questions.

He loved her, and he knew that. It wasn't some adolescent obsession, some silly addiction. He'd already attempted the generally accepted methods of aiding with those particular types of problems…nothing managed to stick. The only explanation that worked is that he really, truly, honestly cared for this person. And, even though it scared him witless (not that he'd say this aloud), he wanted it. He wanted her. No matter what it took. He wanted this small creature that could probably snap his neck in two seconds if she chose. He wanted this sometimes irrational being to be in his life.

He loved her, and he no longer cared who or what knew it.

With that final thought, and a small smile on his face, he sat up and headed for a shower. He would let her have her space. She would come back when she wanted to do so. She wouldn't be able to find any information that would damage the Plan, so it was just fine if she wanted to wander.

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><p>Her thoughts carried her to the Greenhouse room Arty and the twins had created. Holly drifted among the flowers, bushes, lilies and ponds. She took deep breaths in attempt to calm her racing mind. She found a little corner with soft light and what could have been a fairy-sized rock with moss growing on it. She curled up and sat, rocking slightly. She again rolled her neck and shoulder muscles, preparing for what she knew needed to happen next.<p>

A few moments later, she pulled out a Com and dialed Foaly.

Belowground, Foaly debated acting surprised when Holly's name flashed across the plasma, but decided that she would probably see through it.

He blacked out the screens allowing the hallways to view in and pulled out a headset so he could hear her quietly.

He hit the button to accept the call.

Holly forced a weary grin as Foaly grabbed a carrot. He had kept a bucket around, expecting this conversation.

"Hey Holly," he whinnied, "How's the vacation with the Mudboy?"

The quip worked. Holly smiled, a real smile.

"I thought you'd know all about how it was going, since you have a back channel into all of Arty's surveillance."

He let out a horsey-laugh. He had missed Holly's wit. He tried not to think about the fact that he wouldn't get to hear her snide remarks as often if Arty's plan worked.

Holly, it seemed, was too gloomy to notice the momentary flash in his eyes. He had to be thankful for that. He also needed to find out why she was the least bit gloomy when she was supposed to be floating in happiness. He had his suspicions, but he wanted to have her confirm it.

They sat quietly for a moment, the only sound on the Com that of carrots flying down the centaur's gullet. He knew that Holly needed to be the first to engage this conversation.

"Foaly, I'm about to say something I haven't said or even thought since I was underwater in a crappy, luxury shuttle with the nitwitted Orion whispering Shakespeare and running into things." She took a shaky breath.

"I'm scared, Foaly. And it's not a kind of scared I know how to deal with. There is no enemy, there is nothing I can shoot or punch or arrest or smack with a baton. I'm scared and there is no clear out, no exit strategy. I mean, there could be, and I know there could be, but…" she trailed off, letting her thoughts run rampant.

"But what, Hols?" Foaly prompted.

"But I don't want out," she blurted, suddenly. Hearing herself say it, everything seemed clearer.

"I don't want out, Foaly," she repeated. "And that scares me even more." That part came out quiet, small, very unlike her.

Foaly took a deep breath and swallowed the remainder of his current carrot.

"You know, it's alright to be scared, Holly. A lot of things are going on, a lot of things are changing, including, I think, and don't chew my head off for this, you."  
>Holly's breath hitched audibly. She shook her head and looked into Foaly's eyes through the Com.<p>

He took that as a sign to continue.

"You have been happy, Holly. You are happy up there, with Artemis. And when you aren't there, when you aren't around him, you aren't as happy. There is nothing wrong with that." Foaly held his breath, waiting for an elf-sized explosion.

Instead, he heard something he would have given every bar of gold for every patent in his arsenal to never hear again: Holly was crying.

"Holly…Holly, what's wrong?" Foaly was getting a bit panicked. He didn't like it when women cried. His wife used that fact against him occasionally, and it worked like a charm. This didn't bode well if Holly started asking questions he wasn't supposed to answer.

He got lucky, the answers Holly wanted right then were ones he could answer.

She took a breath, calming down.

"Am I betraying everyone? Root, Vinyaya, my parents? We are raised to hate humans; we are taught that they are the greatest enemy to The People. But here I am…" she paused, "caring for a human. I'm caring," she paused again, "maybe more than caring." She stopped, closed her eyes, and breathed.

Foaly gave up on the carrot.

"Holly…" he prompted, eyes wide open.

She shook her head, refusing to follow that line of thought right this moment.

"Am I betraying The People? Am I a monster?" she blurted quickly, almost yelling, eyes open wide. She knew she was shaking, she could see Foaly's face blurring slightly and knew it wasn't the connection.

The carrot hit the floor.

"Have you lost your little elfin mind?" Foaly snapped, totally forgetting that he had planned on listening and being careful with her. He was suddenly very concerned that she might need to get into Dr. Argon's electroshock therapy room, now.

"What?" she yelped. She wasn't expecting that response from her furry friend.

"Holly, do we need to come get you? If you have gone bonkers, we need to get you below ground, now."

Her mouth fell open in shock, which quickly got replaced with furious indignation.

"What are you talking about? How dare you accuse me of that? I'm sitting up here, freaking out because I think I might be betraying MY WORLD and you say I'm going crazy? How dare you, you little pony!"

"Oh good," he responded, suddenly much calmer, "there you are."

"There I, wait, what?" she snapped, not noticing that her free hand was digging into the moss below her.

"You sound like yourself again, so I'm hoping that means you aren't actually going crazy," he said bluntly.

"Buh," she spat out. She sat back, crinkling her face. She drew a breath and rubbed her eyes. Foaly grabbed another carrot while she got herself under some kind of control.

"What are you even talking about, donkey-boy?" she asked, feeling like a deflated balloon.

"Holly, listen to me," he said, waving the carrot at the screen, "I don't know if you've noticed, but you are a highly decorated hero to your People. You have negotiated multiple peace missions, stopped a megalomaniac from destroying the entire planet more than once, and stayed fiercely loyal to the people you respect and care about. How are you worried about being a traitor? You have a bigger fan club than I do down here, and that's saying something."

"Well, that's because you actually encourage people to join your little 'club,'" she cut in.

"That's true," he conceded, "but it also reflects my point. During the last public smearing of your name, the entire Police Station got creamed in the news. Little elves and pixies nearly raised arms in your support. There are young female fairies all over Haven who have posters of you on their walls. Classes on peacefully working with humans are popping up all over the Academies, using your mission tapes as evidence that such things are possible. The Council has even-" he stopped, before he said too much.

"The Council has approved something, you can't tell me what, but it's big and it involves Artemis and The People," she finished, quietly.

Knowing that lying to Holly would be a big mistake, Foaly agreed.

"Yes, that's exactly right." He paused, finished off the carrot he had been waving around his Lab, and continued. "Holly, the human race is off the list of 'natural enemies of The People' for the first time in centuries, and it's because of you. Think about that."  
>"I.." she breathed, "I didn't know most of that." The racing thoughts had been replaced with clouds, a change she wasn't sure she welcomed or resented.<p>

"Of course you didn't," Foaly retorted. "You spend your life wanting to be better than the best, which is very difficult for you because YOU ARE THE BEST. You are the best operative the Force has seen in decades, including Root and Vinyaya. No one will tell you that because you'd never believe it, but it's true. You are decades younger than either of them were when they rose through the ranks, and everyone but you seems to know it. You can have anything you want, Hols. Anything. And no one below ground or above it can honestly call you anything less than an asset to The People, no matter what decisions you make."  
>She had stopped shaking. She was a good deal shocked. She had never thought of her actions, or the effects of her actions, in those terms.<p>

From somewhere on the other side of the room, she heard someone, Artemis, calling for her.

"Foaly, I need to go," she said. She looked down to the Com screen and he saw the start of more tears, but a different type of tear than the ones she had been shedding earlier.

"Okay, Holly," he said. "I'm here when you need me."

She nodded, wiped her eyes and stood up, calling out to Artemis. She had some thinking to do.

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><p><strong>Anyone surprised by the events? By the idea that Holly is a hero to her people, and that she never really realized it?<strong>

**What do you think The Plan is/want it to be? What do you think the next Gift should be? I love the feedback!  
><strong>

**Peace, Love and Dolphins,**

**BlueQueenBee**


	26. Trust and Chances

**Hello lovelies! Lookie what I did! Two updates in as many days!**

**Needless to say, I'm very excited to finally wrap this story up. I can't wait to finally fill you all in on the various secrets I've been hoarding for so long. :)**

**This chapter is a bit more insight into Holly's thoughts, and a bit of (dare I say it?!) fluff. **

**If I haven't wet your appetites by the end of this chapter, I don't know what else to do...especially since I've decided to make a *very* fluffy piece out of the next chappie.**

**However, I will require some assistance from all of you...**

**I don't normally do this, but for the kind of lovely plan I've contrived, I don't feel too bad requesting it. **

**Y'all have to give me 10 more replies, Favorites, Follows or Private Messages before I will post the following chapter. **

**When you get to the bottom, I feel like you will all likely agree that it isn't too high a price to pay. **

**Oh, and I promise to make the next one really, exceptionally good. :)**

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><p>Artemis found a visibly shaken Holly in the Greenhouse room. He didn't say anything, just looked at her for a moment. He wasn't sure what had happened, but he knew she had spoken to Foaly. He was sure he had an email to confirm his suspicions, but from the evidence, he was sure he was right in his guess.<p>

He let her stand there a moment, beautiful in the soft light, and finally held his arms out, his head cocked slightly in an invitation. She took it, and went into his arms. There, she allowed her thoughts and emotions to take over for a moment- tears flowed freely down her cheeks, but her breath came constant. She wasn't upset, but she was overwhelmed.

Foaly had as good as given her his blessing, and she knew it. She knew that he was aware of the goings on in the Fowl Manor during the past week, and he didn't hate her for it. In fact, he seemed to think that what she was doing, thinking, even feeling, was good for The People, for her People.

If anyone was going to call her out on a mistake, it would have been the centaur. If for no other reason than that his wife would kill him for lying to Holly. His wife would also never approve of a move on Holly's part that might endanger The People, and Holly knew Foaly had broken any and all rules against speaking to reporters and told his wife what was occurring above the surface. If she thought there was a problem, it would show on Foaly's face.

Holly took a deep breath and ran all these facts through her mind, while breathing in the scent of the human who was holding onto her so gently.

"How about some time in the gym?" Artemis suggested. She sniffled a little, looking at him. Her eyes narrowed slightly, it was almost uncomfortable that he knew exactly what she needed to get herself under control- almost. Mostly, she had to accept the gravity of the wave of relief that flooded her knowing that he knew her so well. He wouldn't ask questions, even though she was sure he knew why she had been in here, despite him being unaware of all the details in her head.

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><p>Artemis watched Holly out of the corner of his eyes as she stretched, threw kicks and punches, then worked with light weights. He was surprised that she never went to the punching bags, but he knew she was not angry at any particular person, which was when she loved to punch the bag the most. She just needed to work herself out a little, and it was easy for her to focus on her thoughts, but not be overwhelmed by them, if she was putting her body through the paces she had set for it over years of being forced to prove she was as good as men.<p>

While he kept an eye on her, he also made sure to properly perform his daily exercises. Butler was already unhappy that he had been lenient with his workouts while Holly was here. No need to waste the time. He was proud of the progress he had made with his body, even though he'd never tell anyone. He quite enjoyed the look that played across Holly's face when she touched his newly created muscles.

She concentrated, but not on the exercises. She played her situation over in her head. Foaly was right, and she had to admit that to herself. She would never endanger The People, and it seemed that Artemis was accepted as an asset to her world, not simply a non-threat. She had to assume that she played some role in this master plan that Artemis had cooked up with the Council, otherwise she would have been in on planning it. And, she thought, it was something she would personally enjoy or appreciate, because Artemis had presented it to her as one of his Gifts.

She attempted to guess what it might be, but dismissed the idea quickly. Whatever it was, this plan was big and complicated, there was very little chance she would be able to get her head around the whole thing even after Artemis and Foaly explained it to her. There was no reason to wear herself out trying to guess.

She had exhausted her shoulders and hips with attack practices, so she went to the wrestling mat and began a complicated set of tumbles, jumps and additional stretches that made Artemis' eyes fly open and heart beat soar with the realization of some rather interesting possibilities for the talent she was showing. He found himself blinking quickly and turning away, a flush rising to his cheeks as he mentally chided himself. As much as thoughts of her body thrilled him, his primary concern was, as always, her mental and emotional wellbeing. It was –painfully- obvious that her physical wellbeing was being taken care of by her.

Artemis, having warmed up, worked out and cooled down, finally went over to the still-moving figure that so thrillingly haunted his dreams. She finished her cycle of tumbles before she paused, only slightly out of breath, to look up at him. He was very pleased to see she was smiling.

She cocked an eyebrow at him, wandering what he wanted.

He returned the inquiry with a raised eyebrow of his own.

"I'm fine," she replied to the silent question. "Really, I'm fine. I just, I needed to do some thinking."

"I noticed," he said. "So what did you come up with?"

She grinned at him, only slightly exasperated that he wanted to have a fairly serious conversation while they were both covered in sweat. Truth be told, she was pleasantly surprised that he was so comfortable while obviously having just put himself through physical exertion. The man in front of her was so very different than the boy that had accompanied her in the Artic Circle and through the Eleven Wonders. She was quite alright with this change, however.

"I have decided to trust you-you know what I mean!" she quickly added when she saw the look of indignation trying to cross his face.

His features relaxed.

"I mean about this, whatever it is," she said. "Not just this mighty Plan of yours." She hesitated. The instinct to laugh at the silliness of how and where they were having this conversation floated across her mind, but she ignored it. Better to be a bit more serious, since she knew he wanted to hear her say that everything was okay.

He said nothing, allowing her to continue.

"I mean this, us. Whatever we are doing. I'm not sure what it is," she added, "but I think I should trust you." She sighed. The look in his eyes said he wanted more from her. She decided to skip the rest of her gymnastic routine and run through her finishing stretches before her muscles stiffened.

She took a few steps back and sat on the mat, stretching out her back as she reached as far past her toes as she could. Again, Artemis had to shake himself slightly before his thoughts wandered too far upstairs.

She went through her stretches, dragging the moment on. She did it partly because she was fumbling with words, partly to annoy Artemis, and partly because she was well aware of his eyes following her lithe body as she put it through its paces.

"I have decided…to trust you…with me," she huffed finally, flipping the hair out of her eyes so she could look at him.

Artemis swallowed, hard. He wasn't sure if he expected her to say that, but he hadn't expected her to be quite so blunt with her decision.

He thought quickly (which, admittedly, was normal for him). He knew she was winding down with her stretches. Maybe it was time to take a real chance. He might get slapped for his abruptness, but he might get a fantastic treat. He took a quick breath and decided that getting smacked was worth the risk.

He reached out and helped her off the mat, pulling her into a tight (albeit bent over) embrace.

He took another quick breath and asked, almost huskily, "Holly, do you want to go take a shower?"

She sighed appreciatively, she would love a hot shower. She smiled up at him, then froze. There was a look in his eyes. Eyes slightly narrowed, she considered for a moment, gave up, and said, "Yes, Arty, I'd love a shower. I'll use the guest room so you can have your shower."

She began to pull away, headed upstairs, her earlier suspicion at the look on his face erased.

He gently stopped her.

"No," he whispered in that same tone, his eyes twinkling mischievously, heart rate shooting up, "I mean do you want to go take a shower…together?"

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><p><strong>So, my dears, what do you think? Is it worth 10 little replies? I do hope so, because I'm quite looking forward to writing it. <strong>

**I adore you all and hope to post the next chap soon.**

**Love, peace and dolphins,**

**BlueQueenBee!**


	27. What Happens When

**Hello loves,**

**I do hope you all like this chapter. It was fun to write!**

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><p>Holly was comfortable. That is the first thing she realized. She was warm, comfortably enclosed in soft fabrics, and there was a very warm body next to her.<p>

She took a peek through her eyelids, attempting to gauge the time. The pale light spilling through the heavy curtains told her it was barely after dawn. Promptly deciding that she was not going to be awake if the sun wasn't, she closed her eyes and snuggled deeper into the blankets and pillows.

Taking a deep breath, she savored the lavender scent that lightly covered the pillow she was resting her head on. Under the lavender, she could detect a hint of the scent of the shampoo Artemis used.

Despite her determination to go back to sleep, she recalled that there was something nearby that she wanted to look at. The Gift Artemis had given her the night before sat where he had placed it. She quietly and slowly rolled over, grabbing the small package. She smiled, knowing that whatever was under the wrapping, it would be wonderful.

She quietly removed the blue paper, carefully extracting what marvel existed beneath the wrapping.

It was a book, she noticed immediately. She considered rolling her eyes; only Arty would present her with a book for a gift, until she saw the title. "A History of The People's Military, with Special Emphasis on Females in the Force."

Her jaw dropped. The book was written in Gnomish, words spiraling around the pages as The Book did. There was no author, but she wasn't surprised. The People rarely considered the vanity of claiming ownership of historic knowledge. The book was not particularly old, but it was not new, either. She smiled, this was a book she would enjoy reading.

She shifted her weight to look at Artemis. He was still asleep.

'Poor Arty,' she thought. 'I really should be nicer to him.' She had to stifle a giggle at that thought. There was no way she was going to temper her actions; it was just too much fun to watch him struggle.

She couldn't help it, she shook her head, thinking about the day before.

* * *

><p>When Artemis had made that little…suggestion…yesterday in the gym, she could have given him a direct answer, but that wasn't much fun. She knew he didn't expect her to agree, and she took advantage of that little detail.<p>

She took her time answering, looking him over.

She was well aware that her heart beat had sped up, and it had nothing to do with the workout she had just finished.

She finally met his eyes, mischievousness written all over his face. She smiled, her own eyes glittering with mirth. She then turned away from him and began to walk towards the door, making sure to walk in a way that would make Arty very nervous.

Once she had gotten to the hallway, she broke into a run, racing up the stairs.

Artemis' brain was just a fraction slower than usual and didn't realize what Holly was up to until she had a good head-start on him.

By the time he caught up with her, she had locked herself in his bathroom, shower going. He was fairly sure he could hear her laughing- maniacally at that.

On the other side of the door, the little elf certainly was having a good laugh at his expense. Without saying a single word, she had gotten his hopes up and crushed them, all in less than two minutes. And now he was stuck waiting to take a shower until she got finished.

Ten minutes later, she walked out of the bathroom, fully dressed, toweling her hair dry. She walked over to the table where one of her most recent gifts sat, the lotion with Dead Sea nutrients. She couldn't wait to use it on her ears. She purposely avoided Artemis' gaze until she had put the lotion on her ears, replaced the cap and put it back on the table.

He was sitting at the desk in his bedroom, his eyes never leaving her. Someone who didn't know him well would say that his face was passive. Holly, however, read his features and laughed aloud. His typically graceful features read like he had just sucked on a lemon.

When he heard her laughter, he slowly closed his eyes and raised his face an inch or so, as if looking to the heavens to ask for patience. This only made Holly laugh more.

He leveled his gaze at her, which did nothing to stop her giggles.

"That was not very nice, Holly," he said evenly.

She finally gave up trying to control herself and jumped up to the bed so she didn't fall over. She grabbed a pillow and flopped on her back, still laughing.

Artemis stoically got to his feet, walking over to the edge of the bed. Moving faster than Holly honestly thought him capable, he grabbed the pillow out from under her head and smacked her on the face with it. Shocked into silence, she bolted up, shedding the pillow. Instead of being upset, she started laughing again when she saw the bathroom door close as Artemis went to take his own shower.

'Well lookie there,' she thought, 'someone actually does a sense of humor. That's good to know.'

Shaking her head at Artemis' ridiculousness, and still slightly in awe that he had the ability to even be ridiculous, she headed to the kitchen. She was starving!

* * *

><p>Considering that the day had been a bit emotionally charged, Artemis and Holly silently agreed that they would relax for the afternoon. At first, they went to help the twins with various projects.<p>

Myles needed Artemis' assistance with the details of one of his plant cross-breeding attempts. From what Holly could gather, he wanted to make the plant more resistant to insects without using chemicals, so he was taking DNA from an array of other sources, including the insects themselves. The results had been…varied, to say the least. More often than not, Myles had to scrap a weeks' worth of work because the whole thing broke down on a molecular level. He wanted to see if Artemis had any ideas on stabilizing the original structure of cells before adding anything to the mix. He hoped that strengthening the design of the molecular sequence would help keep some of the projects from breaking down so quickly so he could have more time to analyze the breakdown process.

Becket had his own project. He was testing various techniques of adding texture to oil and acrylic paints, with emphasis on building layers of paint that dry with the speed of a basic, thinner layer. Holly got to act as assistant and spent at least an hour poking and prodding piles of paint to see if they had dried, and to what extent.

Since the twins' workroom was just one big room with tables on either side, Artemis and Holly were able to watch one another, as well as both of the smaller boys.

At one point, with over a dozen shades and textures of paint covering her fingers, hands and wrists, Holly wandered over to Artemis and Myles. She left Becket leaned over the pages where he was recording his findings, muttering to himself and shaking his head.

The brothers noticed her approaching, and smiled at her. Holly was somewhere between fascinated and disgusted by the mass of plant matter smudged over discs. The microscope being used was nearly bigger than Holly herself. When she leaned in to get a closer look at the machine, she noticed tail-tale signs of tampering with the original chassis. She wondered who had done the changes, and if there was Fairy technology in there.

Before she could ask, Artemis took a step back from the scope. His hands were empty, and a smile suddenly flitted across her face. He had only a second to notice the look on her face before she suddenly jumped up and poked him in the face.

Not only was this surprising, no one likes being assaulted by a pointer finger, but it was also annoying to Artemis because, of course, Holly still had paint on her hands. Now Artemis had a dark splotch of paint on his cheek, and both of his brothers had taken notice.

The air was still for a moment, then Holly and the twins broke out in raucous laughter. Artemis audibly "huffed" and narrowed his eyes. In one fluid movement, he reached down to where Holly's paint-smeared hands were hovering, shaking, in front of her face and smashed one right into her cheek.

At this point, everyone broke down and laughed. Holly made the mistake of trying to stifle her laughs with her hands, making an even bigger mess, and making everyone laugh even more.

On that light note, Artemis and Holly left the boys to their work and cleaned up.

They spent the next few hours watching movies and talking about Foaly, Mulch, Trouble and everyone else they knew below ground. After a late dinner, Holly realized that she was exhausted. The events of the day had worn her out. She expected it was the emotional turmoil, since she hadn't done very much physical work. That was okay with her, though.

When she finally climbed into Artemis' bed, she had gathered the guts to confront him about his little request earlier in the day.

"So what would you have done if I'd said "yes" earlier?" she asked. He was sitting at his desk, working. Just because Holly was tired didn't mean he could laze about when he had so much to do.

"When would that be, Holly?" he replied, straight faced. She had to give him credit for that. He hadn't even flinched.

"What would you have done if I'd said yes to your little suggestion earlier, the one about a shower?"

He looked up, meeting her eyes.

"You know that I did not expect you to even consider the idea," Artemis said, the hint of a smile on his lips.

"Well, still!" Holly objected. "What would you have done if I had gone ahead with the idea?"

Artemis' face broke into a full smile.

"Holly, we have never actually seen one another completely unclothed. The closest we have ever come to such a situation was many years ago when we were dealing with Hybras. If you suddenly decided that you wanted to jump into a shower with me, I would question your frame of mind. I would also have not joined you. The first time I touch you unclothed, I would prefer it not be because we needed to wash off the sweat from a workout. I would much rather touch you because I want to, not because I am cleaning you." He took a breath. "I am not saying that the idea is unappealing in any way, but when I finally explore your physical body to its fullest, I would like to have the choice to do so in a situation where we have no particular need to accomplish, such as getting clean."

Holly grinned. She had suspected such a reason from him, but hearing it from his mouth was relieving. She agreed. She didn't want any kind of outside requirement surrounding the experience she was (if she was honest with herself) so looking forward to.

Without saying anything, she nodded to him and turned, lying down in the cozy bed.

A few moments later, when she was almost asleep, Artemis walked up to Holly while she was in bed. He gently set a small something next to her on the blanket. Her eyes fluttered, curious as to what he had placed there, knowing it was another Gift.

Instead of allowing her to wake up and explore the present at that moment, Artemis leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.

"You can look at it in the morning. For now, sleep, my love. We will deal with tomorrow when it comes."

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><p><strong>How cute?! :D<strong>

**Same rules as before, 10 comments/reviews/PMs. I had fun reading everyone's input!**

**We are getting to the end. Can you believe that it has been 27 chapters so far? That seems so crazy to me.**

**I love you all!**

**Love, Peace and Dolphins,**

**BlueQueenBee!**


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